French workers strike to keep their lavish pensions

of talks, endless delays and a week of disruptive strikes, the French government finally unveiled on December 11th its long-promised pension reform. The good news is that it has decided to press ahead with its plans, including the abolition of regimes with special privileges, despite the biggest show of union force on the streets since President Emmanuel Macron took office in May 2017.

In a speech that leaned studiously to the left, Edouard Philippe, the centre-right prime minister, described the new universal points-based system as a “fairer” system that will guarantee “social justice”. It will replace the current sprawl of 42 regimes, most of which have different rules. For those beginning their working life, the new rules will apply from 2022, and from 2025 for those already in work but currently under the age of 45. Older generations will keep the existing rules.

Will this moderate approach help to calm the streets? Mr Philippe made it clear that he will not shelve the project altogether, as the unions want. Since December 5th, the national railway, as well as regional trains, the Paris metro and airport ground staff, have been on a rolling strike that looks likely to continue. Teachers are staging walkouts every few days. The unions know full well that past French governments have backed down in the face of paralysing strikes.

Mr Macron is keen to prove that he is different. He has long argued that France needs to be “transformed” rather than merely “reformed”. This is why he promised during his election campaign in 2017 not to raise the retirement age but to redesign the entire system. At stake therefore is not just France’s ability to create a fairer and more flexible pension regime, but also Mr Macron’s reputation as a reformer who does what he promises.

This week, the hard-line unions dug in and vowed to stay on strike. Even the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail, a more moderate union which supports a points-based system, is now furious because of the “equilibrium age”. If he is to get his reform through, the unpopular Mr Macron will have to rely on public opinion. For now a majority of the French continue to support the strikers, just as they did in 1995.

Strike change anything. France , Italy, must weak up for reality. The EC with some money of Germany is a portrait of The End.

There is what is being called a silent majority who support the reforms to make the special union pensions function like normal pensions.

Gosh, now you start reporting.... lost your appetite for UK politics?

Let the jobs move to UK and Germany. Thank You, Sam

Common sense prevails... the whole purpose of a strike is cause some pain so demands can be brought to the table..many are following this story,regardless of how little western media covers the resolve of the people and the bravery it takes to face violent hired thugs to suppress

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