A new day of national mobilization against the pension reform is organized by the inter-union this Thursday. Demonstrations and actions against the government’s plan are planned in many cities.
This Thursday, April 6 marks the eleventh day of mobilization against the pension reform at the call of the inter-union. Nearly three months after the start of the movement against the government’s project, which will be validated or not by the Constitutional Council on Friday April 14, demonstrations are organized throughout the country. But the number of strikers in key sectors seems to be decreasing.
Thus, the SNCF provides for improved traffic compared to previous days of mobilization. On the RATP side, traffic will be almost normal on the RER and Metro network “with the exception of a few lines”.
In education, no unit call to strike for this April 6th. But the FSU-SNUipp, the leading union in nursery and elementary schools, wishes “keep up the pressure“.
“Around 20%” of primary school teachers will be on strike Thursday for the eleventh day of inter-union mobilization against the pension reform, the union provides.
Between 600,000 to 800,000 demonstrators expected
But if the strikers will be fewer in number compared to last week, a large number of demonstrators are expected to take to the streets this Thursday.
According to a territorial intelligence note dated April 4 that BFMTV was able to consult, 600,000 to 800,000 participants are expected in the 340 actions organized across the country, including 60,000 to 90,000 in Paris.
According to this same document, the most extensive provincial processions should be organized in Toulouse (17,500 people expected), Nantes (16,000), (Rennes and Lyon (15,000), Montpellier (12,500), Brest (12,000), Bordeaux and Grenoble ( 10,000) or even Saint-Nazaire (9,000).
In addition, 11,500 police and gendarmes will be deployed across the country, learned BFMTV from the Ministry of the Interior. In Paris, they will be 4200 in total.
“We’re going to go back up”
On the eve of this new day of mobilization, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne met on Wednesday, for the first time since the start of the social movement, the inter-union.
A meeting which lasted less than an hour: the representatives of the unions having left Matignon in front of the refusal of Elisabeth Borne to withdraw the reform. “It is necessarily a failure when the Prime Minister does not make any opening on this discussion. So yes it is necessarily a failure”, lamented the boss of the CFTC, Cyril Chabanier, on behalf of the inter-union.
On BFMTV this Wednesday, Laurent Berger said he was optimistic about the new day of demonstrations. “March 7, 16 and 23 were all three days with levels of mobilization not seen since the 1980s, he insisted. And then sometimes there are weaker moments because it weighs on the purchasing power of employees. And I think that tomorrow we will start to rise again,” he said.