France faces on Thursday a day of strike and demonstrations in various parts of the country, the most recent protests against the provisional reform project of Emmanuel Macron, which seeks raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

The workers of many French cities they took to the streets reject the proposed pension changes.

The demonstrations brought together thousands in the cities of Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes, Lyon and other places as the strikes severely disrupted transport, schools and other public services across the country.

In addition to strikes, it is expected that there will be at least 200 marches in France, including a massive one in Paris in which all major corporations will participate. In addition to taking to the streets, so are the protesters disruption of high-speed train service and causing power outages in various industries.

Most trains in France have been cancelled, including some international connections, according to the railway authority SNCF. Around 20% of flights departing from Paris Orly airport they were also cancelledand airlines warn of delays.

Police unions join

Police unions opposed to the pension reform also participated, while those on duty they were ready for possible acts of violence if extremist groups join the demonstrations.

Employees in the electricity sector pledged to cut electricity supplies as a form of protest, while nearly 70% of kindergarten and primary school teachers they said they would refuse to work on Thursday.

High school student unions have planned to unite and block access to some schools.

“It’s a first day and there will be others”underlined the general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), Philippe Martínez, who in an interview with the Public Sénat channel, underlined that “it is rare for trade unions in France to agree”.

“It’s an indicator that the situation is serious“, to complete.

Martínez recalled that all the establishments agree in rejecting what is the central axis of the reform, the postponement of the minimum retirement age from the current 62 years to 64, as well as the advancement to 2027 of a modification already envisaged in another previous reform, the increase of the contribution period from 42 to 43 years to receive a full board.

For the Macron government, reform is the only way to do it system remains solvent in a country like Francewith a aging population in which all receive a state pension.

For the unions, for their part, the reform is a removal of a hotly contested right. Instead, they propose implementing a tax on millionaires, either increase the contribution paid by employers to the pension system.

Polls show that the majority of the population opposes the reform.

French Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt acknowledged the “concerns” raised by the pension reform, which will require workers to make “an additional effort”.

He asked the strikers not to disrupt the country’s economy. “The right to strike is a freedom, but we don’t want cuts”he said in statements on LCI television.

A struggle of over 30 years

In recent decades the attempts to change the pension system –as life expectancy progressed– they opposed unions.

In 1993, the centre-right government of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur increased the number of contribution years from 37.5 to 40 years get a full pension in the private sector.

His government also changed the method of calculating pensions, basing them on the worker’s 25 best-paid years instead of the previous 10.

The plan, which sidestepped the sensitive issue of public-sector pensions, met with little resistance.

In November 1995, France was paralyzed by centre-right Prime Minister Alain Juppé’s attempts to impose the 40-year requirement in the public sector private list.

The unions called a general strike which paralyzed rail and subway services for three weeks. Masses of public opinion rallied in favor of the strikers and forced the government to back down.

Eight years later, more than a million people took to the streets when centre-right Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin unveiled his plans to make officials work 40 years to get a full pension and all will gradually reach 42 years of contribution.

Raffarin refused to budge and, after weeks of demonstrations and strikes, Parliament approved the bill.

Source: AP, AFP and EFE