French unions refuse to meet Macron until he withdraws pension reform

They call for a new day of strikes and mobilizations for May 1

14 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The main unions in France have refused to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron until he withdraws the pension reform, a warning they have issued after the Constitutional Council decided to support the legislation promoted by the Government on Friday.

The inter-union has refused the possibility of meeting Macron on Tuesday and has assured that, if the law is approved, “no union organization will meet at any time with the Executive to discuss anything other than the withdrawal of the pension reform “.

In addition to demanding that the Government not give the ‘green light’ to the reform and that it send it back to the National Assembly, the unions have announced a new day of demonstrations and strikes for next May 1, as reported by the general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), Sophie Binet.

The leader of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), Laurent Berger, has stated in a letter published on his official Twitter profile that the fight against the reform “is not over” and has called the current situation “unprecedented”.

Despite the fact that Macron has not promulgated the law yet, he promised from the outset that, after obtaining the approval of the Constitutional Council, which anticipates new mobilizations in the streets, he would stamp his signature “in the coming days.”

France experienced on Thursday the twelfth day of protests and strikes against this reform, in which hundreds of thousands of people once again took to the streets of the main cities. The mobilizations go back to January and the unions had already warned that they will continue with them if there are no changes in some of the pillars of the law, such as the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.