Paris (AFP)

Jean-Michel Blanquer accelerates the discussions on pensions: he receives from Friday union organizations, who claim "concrete" for weeks, before meeting teachers in Nancy alongside Edouard Philippe.

"For a long time now we have been asking for real negotiations to start, it's been weeks that we have to talk about figures with the ministry because there we are in a total vagueness on the revalorizations", laments Stéphane Crochet, general secretary of the SE- Unsa, who will be received Friday morning.

Edouard Philippe assured Wednesday that the level of pensions of teachers will be "sanctuarisé" and that will be committed "before the end of the five-year period the revalorizations necessary to maintain the level of pensions" of teachers. It will be done "gradually and we will start in 2021", he said.

In the aftermath, Jean-Michel Blanquer on his side guaranteed that the pensions of teachers "will not decline" and that it is an opportunity "to improve the salaries of teachers because there are delays when we compare 'other European countries'.

The minister assured that the most important effort will be on premiums but that the amount and the rate of increase imply "social dialogue".

"The premiums, okay, but they must be granted to all teachers," asks Francette Popineau, Secretary General of Snuipp-FSU, the first union primary.

To try to continue their efforts to appease a highly mobilized profession within the social movement, the Prime Minister and Jean-Michel Blanquer will go to Nancy on Friday evening to meet teachers for an exchange on pension reform.

- "Impossibility to wait until the end of June" -

"Despite the solemn promises of the Prime Minister Wednesday, and those of Jean-Michel Blanquer, the fact that there is no data figures reminds teachers that there is a trap," said Stéphane Crochet, asking what this appointment is "not yet another meeting meeting".

He explained the "impossibility of waiting for the end of June to have decisions on the table: we need concrete with a calendar, the different stages, the amount of the envelope of the revalorizations, on how many years, and all this from the first meeting, "launched Stéphane Crochet.

According to him, the last speeches of the government have only "increase the feeling of distrust and worry" among teachers.

"But what does it really mean to sanctuarize the level of pensions?" Asks the side of the President of the National Union of High Schools and Colleges (Snalc), Jean-Rémi Girard. "It is necessary to clarify the revaluation of teachers that can not be done with counterparties, we refuse," he said. The Snalc will be received Monday.

Another point of tension, the fact of "rethinking" the teaching profession. Jean-Michel Blanquer has indeed mentioned the "organization of work" teachers, evasively quoting possible counterparts. A theme that is struggling to pass the unions side.

"Discussing the teaching profession is not really the subject of this reform, the subject that follows is that teachers are poorly paid, a point that's all," said Jean-Rémi Girard.

"What worries us is that this reform would serve to rethink our job, and therefore work more without earning more, while for example we are already working 20 days on all of our holidays," adds Francette Popineau, who warns that "the ball is now in the camp of the ministry".

© 2019 AFP