France-social: mobilization day on October 5
Parade on May 1st in Paris (illustrative image).
AFP - BERTRAND GUAY
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
An increase in wages, more employment, and an improvement in working and study conditions: these will be the main demands of a day of mobilization organized on October 5 by an inter-union bringing together the CGT, FO, FSU, Solidaires as well as youth organizations.
A mobilization that the unions want as massive as possible.
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No question of making it yet another day of parades without effect.
For Frédéric Souillot of Force Ouvrière (FO), “
the idea is to mobilize and mobilize more broadly a demonstration of activists”.
The unions do not want to let the government use the health situation to speed up its reforms.
Catherine Perret, Confederal Secretary at the CGT: “
Throughout the summer, the government indeed tried to divert attention by increasing the pressure around health issues.
"
Major question, the social
“
We
,” she continues, “
we think that social issues are the major back-to-school questions. And the government is afraid of that because, not far from the presidential elections, obviously they do not want there to be large-scale movements
”.
The unions want to weigh on the eve of the presidential election and respond very directly to "things are better", hammered by some members of the government: "
We take the Minister of the Economy at his word since it has been a year that he reiterates that indeed, the major issue for people is salary and purchasing power.
He tells Medef universities that he wants to increase salaries.
So we are going to put thousands of people in the streets who will actually demand better wages because they are entitled to them, ”
concludes Catherine Perret
.
Build up the pressure
The intersyndicale's strategy is to increase the pressure until October 5, while discussions around pension reform continue and the government wants to push through its unemployment insurance reform as quickly as possible.
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To read also: Unemployment in sharp decline in France
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