French Unions Turn Up Heat on Macron Reform by Extending Strike

(Bloomberg) --

French President Emmanuel Macron's ability to deliver his pension reform is being tested as labor unions extended their strike until Monday.

Workers in sectors including the Paris metro, national railways, nuclear plants, garbage collectors, schools, hospitals, air-traffic controllers, airlines and broadcasters walked off work on Thursday.

More than 800,000 people demonstrated across France, including 65,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry, while the CGT union said more than 1.5 million took part. Both estimates show today marks the biggest turnout in a protest against Macron and his policies since he took office in May 2017.

While France's Yellow Vest protests rocked France late last year and stunned the world with images of riots on the Champs-Elysees avenue, Thursday's marches were hit by short, localized episodes of violence in Paris, Bordeaux and Nantes.

Unions opposing Macron's plan for a top-to-bottom rebuilding of the pension system have threatened to bring France to a standstill until the government backs down. The President's office said he was “calm and determined” in the face of the indefinite strike.

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December 5, 2019

Macron's Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, is expected to unveil the details of the pension reform as soon as next week.

“There are margins for negotiation with labor unions,” government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye said on Thursday. “If I say the government's door is open, it means it's open.”

Digging In

[Read more about “La Greve”]

Labor unions are digging in. Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT union, said labor representatives have gotten “no signs” from the government that would make them change their minds about continuing the protests.

“I have told the government over and over again to rewrite its project,” he said on France Info radio.

Macron's plan is to abolish a pension system with 42 different benefit regimes for different classes of workers and replace it with a universal points-based system. In the 21st century, he argues, workers don't have linear careers, as was assumed in 1945 when France's pension system was conceived. The multitude of regimes has become “corporatist,” leading to injustice, complexity and failures, the government says.

Macron, who faced months of grassroots Yellow Vest protests starting in November 2018 that sometimes turned violent, is paying close attention to any potential security issues, an official at the Elysee Palace told reporters in Paris.

Martinez said labor unions would seek to ensure that there's no violence during the street protests. The union leader said labor groups would gather tomorrow to discuss plans for fresh days of protests.

Strikes have been the undoing of previous French governments and represent a major test for Macron. His office reiterated on Thursday that he will stick to his plans to “reform and modernize” France, noting that the project is in line with the mandate he was given by voters. The president “wants to build the welfare state of the 21st century,” the official said.

While Macron has already barreled through reforms of tax and labor laws, history shows pensions won't be nearly as easy. In 1995, Prime Minister Alain Juppe abandoned his pension-reform plan after strikes paralyzed the country for about a month.

To contact the reporters on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net;William Horobin in Paris at whorobin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Geraldine Amiel at gamiel@bloomberg.net, Vidya Root, James Regan

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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