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Paris (AFP) – The leaders of the main French unions described as a “failure” the first meeting they held on April 5 with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on the controversial pension reform, which mainly aims to increase the age from 62 to 64. retirement. Paris insists on not withdrawing the amendment and the unions call for an eleventh day of strikes for Thursday, April 6.
The long-awaited meeting between the Prime Minister of France, Elisabeth Borne, and the representatives of the country’s main unions ended on April 5 about an hour after it began, after members of the workers’ associations described the meeting as a failure”.
The unions point to the refusal of the premier to withdraw the controversial reform.
“We told the prime minister again that there could be no other democratic solution than the withdrawal of the text,” but “she replied that she wanted to keep it, which is a serious decision,” said Cyril Chabanier, from the CFTC, on behalf of the unions. .
France has registered a strong social conflict since last January due to the amendment promoted by President Emmanuel Macron, with the aim of increasing the retirement age from 62 to 64 years, by 2030, and bringing forward to 2027 the requirement of contributing 43 years to collect a full pension and not 42 years as is the case today.
Fearing that he would lose the vote in Parliament and after using a series of parliamentary procedures to limit the debate, Macron decided on March 16 to adopt it by decree, a decision that radicalized the protests.
The reform, which the Government considers key to avoid a future deficit in the pension fund, is currently before the Constitutional Council, which on April 14 must rule on its validity.
Unions call an eleventh day of general strike for Thursday
Pending this decision, the Government tries to turn the page with new projects, such as a new Labor Law, which the Prime Minister intended to discuss this Wednesday with the union leaders.
“I am not considering moving forward without the social partners,” Borne told the press, after the meeting that he considered an “important stage” and in which, in his opinion, the unions expressed their willingness to “work further.”
However, the centrals publicly indicated that they are not willing to address new issues until the pension law is withdrawn, for which reason they considered a “failure” that the head of government was not willing to discuss this issue.
“We are experiencing a serious democratic crisis,” said the leader of the main CFDT union, Laurent Berger, referring to the fact that two out of three French people, according to polls, as well as the unions, oppose this reform.
France will live on Thursday, April 6, its eleventh day of strike and demonstration since January against the reform.
At the beginning of March, the workers’ associations managed to mobilize more than one million people, according to the authorities, and more than three million, according to the unions.
