While the question of purchasing power makes a strong comeback in the campaign
presidential, the day of this Thursday will be marked by a social movement to demand wage increases.
Some 170 rallies and parades will take place throughout France at the call of the unions CGT, FO, FSU and Solidaires. “We really think we are doing a lot more than October 5,” predicted Céline Verzeletti, confederal leader
CGT. This day of interprofessional mobilization brought together 85,400 people according to the Ministry of the Interior, and more than 160,000 according to the CGT.
Teachers strike
A Paris, the demonstrators will meet around noon on the Place de la Bastille for a “concert meeting”, before setting off around 2 p.m. in the direction of Bercy. High school students should meet at Place de la Nation at 11 a.m. Political figures will also be present, at a time when opinion polls are raising concerns regarding the issue of purchasing power. The presidential candidates
Fabien Roussel (PCF),
Yannick Jadot (EELV) and
Jean-Luc Melenchon (LFI) are announced.
Anne Hidalgo (PS) will be in Mayenne.
Among the demonstrators, should appear the employees mobilized in recent weeks, especially from the sectors of industry, agribusiness, commerce, the public service. Teachers, already in the street on January 13 and 20, will be “nearly 20%” to be on strike in the first degree, according to the Snuipp-FSU union.
Disrupted transport
On the public transport side, the circulation of regional trains will be slightly disrupted, according to the SNCF. In Ile-de-France, one in three trains will run on the RER B North line. On the RER A, C, D and line H of the Transilien, the offer will be three trains out of four.
The organizers are asking for an increase in the minimum wage and the index point for civil servants, and more generally for all salaries, allowances and retirement pensions, in a context of strong inflation (+2.8% year on year in December). The unions deplore that there was no boost to the Smic during the five-year term, beyond the automatic increases, and no further raising of the index point.
The CFDT goes it alone
The number one of CFDT, Laurent Berger, also insists on the need to raise salaries. But the first French union will not join forces with the intersyndicale on Thursday. “It is the multiplication of concrete and targeted initiatives that will produce results. Not the big interprofessional event. The tote does not work, ”he pleads. The CFDT has decided to organize on its side on February 3 “a march of essential workers”, which should bring together several hundred people in the west of Paris.
In the meantime, the organizers of Thursday’s mobilization have already met on Friday morning for a meeting to decide on the follow-up to the movement, to which Unsa and CFE-CGC have announced their arrival.
