France, Philippe explains new points on pension reform and calls for an end to strikes. Unions: "Unacceptable. Fight will be hard"

Foreign

France, new wave of strikes. Waiting for Macron openings

from our correspondent ANAIS GINORI

In his expected speech, the chief executive tried to exalt the measures that will lead to greater guarantees for those who are less protected today, such as self-employed workers, farmers, or women. In fact, the government wants to remedy the pension disparity that women are victims of.
The new universal social security system – calculated on the basis of points – will provide additional points for women workers equal to 5 percent from their first child, and families with three or more children will also benefit from an additional 2 percent. The reform also plans to guarantee everyone, regardless of the number of contributions, a minimum pension of 1000 euros per month.

"It seems to me that the guarantees given to the most worried sections of the population justify the resumption of dialogue and the end of strikes that penalize millions of French," said French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, in the speech in which he detailed the pension reform

As expected, some concessions were made. The most important is the decision to postpone the implementation of the new social security calculation only from the workers born in 1975, and no longer in 1963 as assumed at the beginning. The transition of the so-called "special regimes", such as those of train drivers or law enforcement agencies, or autonomous funds towards the new universal system remains vague.Philippe said he wanted to safeguard the "specificities" of some particularly tiring trades but without giving more details. There is also little clarity towards the teachers, who today have the pension calculated on the last six months and not on the whole career as it will be in the future. "There will be a progressive upgrading of their salaries," the head of the government said.

The CGT-Cheminots, the first union in the transport sector, has launched an appeal to "tighten the strike" after the announcements by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe

But the breaking point was about the legal retirement age. The government said it did not want to touch the current 62 years but announced a "bonus-malus" system, with the introduction of an "age of balance" at 64 years. A decision that caused the immediate reaction of Laurent Berger, leader of the Cfdt reformist union that the current executive was trying to attract into its field to corner other radical unions like CGT and Force Ouvriere. "A red line has been crossed," Berger said of the "balance" age.

The reaction of the CGT leader is more obvious, Philippe Martinez. "The government is teasing everyone," said Martinez, who has already announced new demonstrations for tomorrow and Tuesday. Judging by the early reactions, the government managed to compact the unions against itself.

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