French unions plan more protests

FRANCE: French unions will not stand down in their protests against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reform, despite the Government trying to turn the page on the months-long showdown, CGT union head Bernard Thibault said Wednesday.

The CGT, the more militant of France’s two main unions, will propose a new national day of protests for later this month against the pension law, Thibault told Reuters.

He said protests over a two-year increase in the retirement age would not end until Sarkozy invites union leaders to participate in talks on modifying the bill, which should be signed into law in the coming days.

“Whatever the government thinks, the issue of pension reform is far from over,” Thibault said in an interview in the union’s red-brick headquarters in eastern Paris.

“Even when it signs this into law, the protests will drag on the Government like a ball and chain for a very long time.”

Sarkozy’s flagship pension reform, aimed at trimming a ballooning pension shortfall, prompted unions to organise some of the biggest protest demonstrations in Europe since the start of the financial crisis and the austerity measures it triggered.

Refinery and port strikes squeezed fuel supplies and sporadic riots on the fringes of some marches embarassed the centre-right government, yet unions failed to block the legislation as they have with past Government reforms. Unions, whose pension protests are back by two-thirds of respondents in opinion polls, will meet Thursday to agree on further action and on how to proceed after Saturday, when they have scheduled an eighth day of countrywide demonstrations.

Thibault said the CGT wanted to call a further day of protests for later in November.

The reform will raise the minimum retirement age to receive a state pension to 62 from 60, and the age to receive a full pension to 67 from 65.

Thibault said Sarkozy was mistaken in thinking he could turn the page on pensions with a cabinet reshuffle later this month.

French media are speculating that Energy Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, a popular centrist with good union relations, could be elevated to prime minister to restore social dialogue as Sarkozy gets stuck into global financial issues as France takes over the presidency of the Group of 20 economic leadership forum.

“The movement is not finished. It will take much more than just a reshuffle, or the appointment of this or that person,” Thibault said, adding that a lack of concessions in the pension law for people in physically demanding jobs like construction meant localised strikes could break out on a company-by-company basis in the weeks and months ahead.

The CGT believes increasing the retirement age is not the best way to address the issue of an ageing population and that the pensions deficit can be solved by creating more jobs, so that young people can enter the workforce earlier and older people can remain employed longer.

Paris, Thursday, Reuters