Protests in France against reforms to the pension system have not subsided. Both trade union representatives and ordinary citizens are taking to the streets in droves. More than 800,000 people participated in demonstrations against pension reform in more than 100 cities in France.
The outrage was prompted by the French parliament’s scandalous and unpopular decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years, while making changes to the system itself.
At the beginning of December in France there was another surge of protests, the largest since 2010. The number of participants in the actions reached several hundred thousand. The French were outraged by the authorities’ plans to abolish special pension categories for certain professions, allowing them to retire earlier or receive higher payments due to difficult working conditions.
Trade unions have also recently joined the protesters (including the “Yellow Vests.” However, this may actually be a problem for the wave of popular discontent.
The General Confederation of Labor (#CGT), #France's largest union in the public sector, planned rolling strikes in transport sector during #Christmas holidays, mounting pressure on the government to reconsider a pension reform, a union official announced on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/KP6HIFfMBQ
— People's Daily app (@PeoplesDailyapp) December 12, 2019
The essence of reform
Prime Minister Eduard Philippe said that the new pension system would be “more fair” although people would have to work longer. According to the Prime Minister, employees will have an incentive to work longer through a system of bonuses and discounts.
According to Bloomberg, the retirement age will be raised to 64 years by 2027. Until then, the formal retirement age will remain unchanged at 62 years.
The reform will apply to those who will start working in 2022, and will not affect the citizens born before 1975. For those who have worked full-time, the minimum pension is €1,000 per month. The system of pension calculation will be brought to a single standard: currently, there are 42 separate pension programs.
Instead of taking into account the highest salary one received within 25 years like before, it will now take into account the average earnings over the entire working life.
The reform affects most employees with special pension benefits, including railwaymen, dockers and employees of the Paris Opera. These groups now have the right to retire before reaching the average retirement age of 62 years. Edouard Philippe wants to equalize all categories of citizens and introduce a system of points for each hour worked. Thus, the reform implies the creation of a unified system.
However, the details are so inaccurate and vague that even the authorities themselves are confused with the proposed system. For example, French-Senegalese Government Spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye made a mistake during a conference about the reform. Journalists asked her what would happen to those who would leave at the age of 62 despite the new law, pushing her to clarify if the malus system (5%) would be in effect until the age of 64, or throughout the whole pension period. The politician incorrectly answered that it would only be up to 64: she then had to justify herself for her incompetence on Twitter.
Désolée, erreur de ma part ce matin sur @franceinter: comme aujourd’hui avec le taux plein, partir avant l'âge d'équilibre, ce sera partir avec un malus qui s'appliquera tout au long de la retraite. #le79inter https://t.co/kSzMSsrRQx
— Sibeth Ndiaye (@SibethNdiaye) December 12, 2019
Trade union activity
Against the backdrop of the usual protests, the trade unions, which have lost a lot of their influence in recent years, have also became active. The CGT called the recent government statements “a mockery of the protesters.”
According to the leader of another major French trade union association, Force Ouvriere, Yves Veurier, the protest activity appears to be on a rare scale, as high as it was in 2010 and 1995.
However, according to many experts, trade unions are in fact in bed with the state. Externally, it seems that they were in solidarity with the people and the Yellow Vests movement (which had previously rejected the unions altogether on the basis of their political associations). However, in essence, their task is to divide the people and eventually, after the protests calm down, to compromise with the Macron government which is eager to take control of the popular unrest.
Shocked by the success of the Yellow Vests movement, the trade unions had not found their place and long remained outside of the action. A year later, parallel movements began to emerge.
Flickr/Christophe LEUNG
Guy Groux, researcher at the Centre for Political Studies (Cevipof), believes that the “Yellow Vests” have hurt the trade unions significantly:
“On the one hand, the protests were deeply effective, forcing Emmanuel Macron to take emergency measures a few weeks later, including the reduction of the CSG for pensioners, which the trade unions had been unsuccessful in achieving for several months… On the other hand, the ‘yellow vests’ are a reflection of the French people’s total distrust of institutions, including trade unions.”
According to him, the situation is even more serious than the massive but useless mobilizations against reforms to the pension system in 2010, the labour law (2016 and 2017) and the SNCF (2018).
It is no coincidence, therefore, that the essayist and consultant Alain Minc, a close advisor of Emmanuel Macron, welcomed the fact that the opposition being led by the trade unions. In his opinion, unlike the Yellow Vests, trade union representatives are “conscientious, balanced and reasonable people.”
“But we know that to get out of this strike, we have to break the syndicate front. To break the syndicate front, you have to find syndicates you can get closer to. In short, divide and conquer.”
In fact, Mr. Minc announced the Macron government’s plan to decontaminate the protest wave, discredit it and introduce an ultra-liberal pension model. France’s hopes of preserving the rest of the social system are failing. Macron doesn’t need old people– he needs quick and effective measures to support the government that won’t cost him that much, for example, more migrants and the final privatization of all public sectors. In other words, selling France itself.