“Everything increases, except our salaries! “: several tens of thousands of private sector employees, civil servants, retirees or high school students demonstrated Thursday in France to demand wage increases in a context of a strong comeback of the question of purchasing power, a few weeks before the presidential election , and as inflation sets in.
This day, at the call of the CGT, FO, FSU and Solidaires and several youth organizations, “is the convergence of all the mobilizations” for several weeks “in all sectors”, underlined the number one of the CGT , Philippe Martinez. “Today too many employees in activity, too many pensioners find it difficult to find accommodation, to heat themselves more difficult, to move (…) and the answer cannot be substitutes, bandages at the last moment”, also estimated Yves Veyrier (FO).
“More than 150,000″ people mobilized during 170 demonstrations and rallies this Thursday, according to the CGT. The union had said upstream that it was thinking of “doing much more than October 5”, according to Céline Verzeletti, confederal leader. This day of interprofessional mobilization brought together 85,400 people according to the Ministry of the Interior, more than 160,000 according to the CGT.
20,000 people in Paris according to the CGT
In Paris, the procession – with 20,000 participants, according to the CGT – set off shortly following 2 p.m. from Place de la Bastille in the direction of Bercy, behind a banner proclaiming: “General increase in wages, pensions, social minima, it is urgent”. Political figures were present, like Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI), Yannick Jadot (EELV) and Fabien Roussel (PCF), at a time when the polls put voters’ concerns at the top of the question of the power of ‘purchase.
In Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), in the morning, several thousand people (2,500, according to the police headquarters) marched from the Old Port, while in Lyon (Rhône), there were around 1,500 according to the police in freezing cold. They were also a thousand in Saint-Étienne (Loire) according to the police, 2500 according to the CGT, between 1500 (police) and 2500 (unions) in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) and 1750 in Bordeaux (Gironde).
In Lille (North), several hundred people also gathered, under the drizzle, while in Calais, they were 150 to 200. In Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), several hundred people also demonstrated in the post- noon, and regarding 500 in Besançon, behind a banner “Our purchasing power is going up in smoke. Fed up ! “. In Corsica, the mobilization was weak – around 150 people in Bastia, according to the authorities -, and around fifty in Ajaccio.
Teachers also present
The teachers, already in the street on January 13 and 20 to protest once morest the management of the Covid-19 health crisis, were present in the various processions, with signs targeting their minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, such as: “Salaries for go to Ibiza in winter”. At the end of the morning, the Ministry of Education reported 8 to 9% of strikers in the first and second degree. “Big fed up”, teachers who are “at the end” or who fall “like dominoes”: from Paris to Marseille via Strasbourg, their anger was heard.
Excluding education, the rate of strikers was estimated at around 2.6% at midday, according to the Ministry of Transformation and Public Service. In the territorial, it was 2.2%.
The unions are calling for an increase in the minimum wage and the index point for civil servants, and more generally all salaries, allowances and retirement pensions, in a context of high inflation (+ 2.8% over one year in December) and record dividends. “There are declarations of good intentions on the part of the government but we see that in the branches it gets stuck”. (…) Employees are asking for their due,” said Philippe Martinez.
The “caring” government
The Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, stressed for her part on CNews Thursday that the government had been “very attentive to purchasing power since the start of the five-year term”. The Prime Minister must receive the social partners for bilateral talks by mid-February, we learned from Matignon. In addition to subjects such as the advancement of the social agenda, “subjects of concern to the social partners” will be mentioned.
The number one of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, also hammers the need to raise wages, calling on the employers to understand that “now we have to give back a little”. But the first French union did not join forces with the intersyndicale on Thursday, and decided to organize on February 3 “a march of essential workers”. The organizers of Thursday’s mobilization will decide Friday on the continuation of the movement, during a meeting at which Unsa and CFE-CGC have announced their arrival.
