We look at the expected disruption to travel and other services in France
After more than a month since the May 1 protests, French unions are calling for a fresh national day of action to protest against the government’s controversial pension reforms on Tuesday (June 6).
Between January and May of this year – especially in March – France saw widespread strike action in a number of sectors as unions battled the reforms, which will see the pension age rise from 62 to 64.
The transport sector in particular suffered, with trains and flights cancelled. There were also fuel shortages after unions blocked access to refineries. Bin collectors in Paris also initiated a strike, which saw the streets of the capital overflowing with rubbish.
So what will the impact be of the June 6 strike?
Trains
It is expected public transport workers on trains, trams, metros, and buses will strike but there has been no confirmation yet. We also do not know what level of disruption any action will cause.
Planes
A strike by air traffic controllers is expected to cause widespread disruption.
Flight delays and cancellations can be expected at several French airports, said France’s civil aviation authority, including Paris-Orly, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes.
Other sectors
It is expected that teachers will also join the strike action, across both primary and secondary schools in France. But, again, we have no details regarding how much disruption this will cause.
Civil servant unions have also warned of strike action, that could affect not only traditional services but also after-school care, crèches, and the provision of school meals.
The CGT (confédération générale du travail) union have also given advance warning of a strike by their members in the healthcare sector between June 2 and June 8, although no final details have been announced. There is a wider interunion call for healthcare workers to strike on June 6.
Why are unions striking on June 6?
Unions have chosen June 6 as a national day of action for two reasons.
The first and most straightforward is that when workers strike, they lose pay, and after months of action workers in the most prevalent sections will be feeling the effects of this.
The unions think it is better for workers to join forces in unison for disruption to be as strong as possible, as opposed to more frequent but less organised and therefore less disruptive strikes taking place on a sector-by-sector level.
They also believe a month of no strikes will invigorate as many workers as possible to turn out on June 6.
Secondly, on June 8 the National Assembly (France’s parliament) will debate a number of movements on the matter, in motions put forward by the LIOT, a group of independent MPs in the chamber.
One of these will include a motion which keeps the age of retirement fixed at 62 years of age – and after almost toppling the government with a motion of no-confidence in March, the group believe this time the motion can be passed with cross-party support from all opposition MPs.
The unions are therefore marching two days before to show their support – and strength – to those in parliament, and to show they have not given up the most controversial aspects of the bill being cancelled.
What is next?
- The National Assembly will discuss a number of motions on France’s pension reforms, on Thursday, June 8.
- The reforms validated by France’s highest constitutional authority on Friday are set to become effective from September 1.
Source: Connexion France