Paris (AFP)
The general secretary of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, said Thursday that strikes, such as the one at the RATP that will very much disrupt the traffic Friday, show "the reality of discontent in the country."
"This is the reality of discontent in the country, tomorrow at the RATP, yesterday in the health and in many companies and services (...). There is a solution, it is to take into account the rising anger, and for several months ", that" the government and the Medef "must" hear today, "said Martinez on RTL.
"It's been two years socially boiling and explosive," he said, calling "resolutely everyone" to mobilize given the "climate emergency and social emergency." "We need to expand even beyond unions, NGOs, associations."
At the RATP, the mobilization of strikers, which will cause traffic disruption seen for 12 years, "shows the level of discontent RATP agents," said Martinez.
This strike was launched by several unions of the Paris transport authority to protest against the pension reform and to obtain the maintenance of the special regime of the RATP agents. Traffic will be extremely disrupted, including ten completely closed metro lines.
This special pension scheme "is not an advantage, it is a right", which compensates for the hardship, like that of the profession of metro driver, said Martinez.
The CGT proposes to "extend these rights to more people", to "take into account the arduousness" of more professions, "masons, health workers who work at night for example," he detailed .
"We should be able to retire at age 60 and sooner for tough jobs," he added.
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