Pension reform: why are truck drivers only joining the mobilization now?

Ophélie Artaud, with AFP 11:15 a.m., March 6, 2023

They will be among the most scrutinized sectors on March 7.

Since this Sunday, truckers have joined the mobilization movement against the pension reform.

The FO Transports and SUD Solidaires road transport unions are even calling for a renewable strike.

In particular, they plan to block logistics platforms, industrial areas and organize snail operations around major cities.

For its part, the majority union of the Federal Road Union FGTE-CFDT only called for mobilization for this Tuesday, March 7, at the same time as the other sectors.

But why do they join the mobilization?

Drivers will have to work two more years

Truck drivers are also affected by the pension reform.

While they benefit from a leave of end of activity (CFA) which allows them to benefit from an early departure, with the reform, they will also have to leave two years later.

Concretely, the CFA takes into account the arduous work of the truck driver and allows employees who justify at least 26 years of activity to "cease their professional activity up to five before the opening of their right to retirement", details the website of the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

But with the pension reform, "the departure from the CFA will no longer be at 57 but at 59," said the FO union in a press release. 

>> READ ALSO

- Pension reform: the government has its eyes riveted on the mobilization day of March 7

If the truckers had not taken part in the first days of mobilization against the pension reform, it was because they thought they could continue to benefit from their early departure, without going back in age.

Because if the bill plans to keep the CFA, truckers will still not be spared by the decline in the age of cessation of activity.

A device in danger?

The unions are also concerned about the maintenance of the long-term device.

As 

details, during a meeting between the State and employee representatives organized last week, "the government has undertaken to invest 150 million per year until 2030 to maintain the system".

This does not reassure the unions, worried "that it is not enough", as Patrice Clos of FO Transport explains to

.

In the meantime, if the mobilization of the truck drivers is followed, it could have consequences on the supply in the supermarkets in the days to come.