Salaries, unemployment insurance, pensions: demonstrations in several large cities in France

The procession in Nice (south of France) during a day of strikes and protests against the economic and social policies of the government, October 5, 2021. REUTERS - ERIC GAILLARD

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In France, employees, the unemployed, students and retirees demonstrated on Tuesday to demand an increase in the minimum wage as well as answers on pension reforms and unemployment insurance.

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From Marseille to Paris via Toulouse, Grenoble or even Bordeaux, more than 160,000 people demonstrated in nearly 200 rallies, according to the CGT, 85,400 according to the Ministry of the Interior.

In Paris, several thousand people - 25,000 according to the CGT, 6,400 according to Beauvau -, under a strong police presence, set off at the beginning of the afternoon from the Place de la République towards the Opera, where the procession took place. dispersed towards the end of the afternoon without incident. " 

Pensions, salaries, public services, unemployment insurance, no to social regression, no to the health pass as a tool of repression

 ", could be read on the banner at the head of the procession. “

 Young workers, unemployed and retired, we must fight together. Young workers, unemployed and retired, it is all together that we will win,

 ”proclaimed the demonstrators.

" 

We will not wait until the day after the presidential election to increase wages, 

" summed up before departure the leader of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, who called for demonstrations on Tuesday to "

 win the wage battle

 ", demand “ 

urgent answers 

” and put social questions back at the heart of the debate.

His union demanding a 20% increase in the minimum wage.

We want current issues related to the situation of the working world and the unemployed, since there is the reform of unemployment insurance, to be present.

We hear a lot of statements, a lot of proposals on wage increases, purchasing power ... We want concrete actions.

Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the CGT

Anne Verdaguer

In the procession, student organizations denounced increasingly

precarious

conditions

for young people

and asked in particular for an increase in scholarships.

We are in a critical situation [...] We have no real measures to take in the face of student insecurity [...] The government has promised us three times to reform the scholarships.

We still have nothing.

Mélanie Luce, president of UNEF

Anne Verdaguer

Reform of unemployment and pension insurance 

In Marseille, the procession gathered several thousand people at the end of the morning, 3,500 according to the police headquarters.

In Lyon, the police counted 2,300 participants (6,000 according to the CGT).

They were 2,400 to 5,000 according to sources in Toulouse, 1,550 to 4,000 in Bordeaux, 2,400 to 3,500 in Nantes.

However, the call to strike that accompanied this day of demonstrations was not widely followed in transport.

In National Education, the ministry reported midday 4.06% of strikers on average among teachers.

Across France, the ranks of demonstrators were swelled by opponents of the reform of

unemployment insurance

, which entered into force on Friday, and which results in reducing the benefits of the "permittent" unemployed, linking short contracts and periods of unemployment.

All unions are expected to file appeals against the reform this week.

Another point of vigilance, the

question of pensions

, which continues to hover over the end of Emmanuel Macron's mandate and will be an essential subject of the presidential campaign.

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