Several thousand people marched Saturday in the streets of Paris against the pension reform desired by the government, at the call of the only union Force Ouvrière, before another parade organized by the CGT on Tuesday. Protesters, mostly dressed in red chaps and waving FO flags, were walking behind a banner proclaiming "In Fence for our retreats".
The procession, under a beautiful sun from the Duroc metro station was to join the place Denfert-Rochereau, through Montparnasse. The organizers were expecting some 10,000 participants. On the banners, one could read: "Macron universal retreat, it's no!", "No to retirement by points," no to endless work ", or" Maintaining the 42 existing regimes, withdrawal from the Macron project -Delevoye ".
"We have no reason to question (...) what works," FO Secretary General Yves Veyrier told reporters. "We do not want a single scheme by points, because (it) would give tomorrow all the levers of action to future governments to act on the level of pensions, and indeed on the effective age of retirement ", he added.
"We will need to bring together a union action unit"
The leadership of FO has "not expected" to join the demonstration of the CGT Tuesday on the same subject, but "we are in contact" with the central Philippe Martinez, Yves Veyrier said again. "We will need to bring together a union action unit if we want to win, we know it, and it is in this sense that we are working today".
The reform of the pension system provides for the abolition of all special schemes for certain civil servants, employees of several large public enterprises and a handful of other professions, and their replacement by a universal point-based pension system. This mobilization comes after that of RATP agents, lawyers, doctors and pilots who have demonstrated in recent days against the end of special regimes.