Europe 1 with AFP 10:56 am, March 23, 2023

While a ninth day of mobilization against the pension reform is organized this Thursday, the Union of trades and industries of the hotel industry (Umih) published a statement to ask to "be able to work by welcoming with dignity and safety" its customers, also deploring the "social tensions" that penalize the activity.

The employers of the hotel and restaurant industry ask Thursday to "be able to work by welcoming with dignity and safety" its customers, on the eve of a 9th day of mobilization against the pension reform, deploring the "social tensions" that penalize the activity.

"We are today in a situation of very strong tension for our companies which are very directly affected by social tensions in the country," Thierry Marx, president of Umih, the main employers' union in the sector, said in a statement.

Thierry Marx calls on "all actors to find the path of order and return to normal"

"Our companies are trapped in a social protest while they are in a situation of extreme economic fragility," he continues, noting a "very deteriorated social and economic situation throughout the territory that prevents us from carrying out our activity - blockades, violence, garbage cans not picked up..."

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This "social crisis is added to the economic crisis" linked to "the considerable increase in the cost of raw materials and that of energy", argues Thierry Marx, who calls on "all actors to find the path of order and return to normal".

"Need to take into account the arduousness of the professions" of the sector

While the reform raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 years, the president of Umih stresses, however, "the need to take into account the arduousness of the professions" of the sector and to do "a real in-depth work on vocational training" in order to allow employees "senior or not, to consider an evolution in their career".

The unions are calling Thursday for a ninth day of strikes and demonstrations against the pension reform, the first organized at the national level after the adoption of the law by forceps, via 49.3, and the day after a televised intervention by the head of state who once again justified a reform "necessary".