It has been nearly three months since the pension reform has been stirring people’s minds and fueling debate. In the street, social mobilization is not weakening with French people determined to make their voices heard and thus demand a withdrawal of the bill. In the National Assembly, the deputies failed to reach an agreement together to offer a favorable vote to a controversial text. It was ultimately the Senate that managed to harmonize, at the cost of a few adjustments, before examining the text in a joint joint committee. While the vote on the pension reform is still uncertain for this Thursday, what is the plan planned by the inter-union in the event of adoption of the text?
This Thursday, March 16 could go down in the history of pension reforms with a possible vote for a highly debated text, which mobilizes the French in the streets and the unions. The bill must, in fact, be presented successively to the Senate and to the National Assembly in order to be voted on, despite persistent discord and still controversial points. While the government tries to put all the chances on its side to obtain a favorable vote, the prospect of recourse to article 9.3 remains strong.
On the side of the inter-union, the negotiations are also going well and everyone is organizing to find the procedure to follow in the event of a vote granted to the text of the law. Thus, the inter-union held a meeting, this Wednesday, March 15 in the evening, at the headquarters of SNUIPP, the teachers’ union. After an 8th day of mobilization against the reform having brought together 1.7 million demonstrators in France according to the CGT and 480,000 according to the Ministry of the Interior, there is no question of giving up.
Despite the agreements reached between senators and deputies on the main pension reform measures, such as the legal retirement age, union leaders refuse to give up the fight. At first, it is an important meeting which is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. this Thursday in front of the National Assembly for a press conference with, as an objective, a request to the deputies not to vote on the bill.
In the event that the text is finally voted on by Parliament or passed by force thanks to article 49.3, the movement should, according to the first information, continue. The number two of Unsa, Dominique Corona, thus confided to Franceinfo, to have “a whole panoply of possible actions”. For him, “mobilization does not necessarily mean demonstration” and he undertakes to “[continue] to fight”.
While the figures for social mobilization are gradually falling, the unions are considering new actions to bring the French together. Aware that the successive strike calls have weakened the workers, Catherine Perret, the confederal secretary of the CGT, remains convinced of the positive feedback from the French: “It’s hard to go on strike, it’s hard to demonstrate once, twice, three times a week […] but […] the French were present in the demonstrations and in the strikes”.
If the bill is passed on Thursday, the unions must meet to choose their battle plan. At the microphone of Franceinfo, Laurent Berger, secretary general of the CFDT, confirmed that “there will be a sequel” and that the unions will continue to “carry this voice” to counter a feeling of injustice “which will continue”.