Thursday, March 09, 2023

France's young people stand up against higher retirement age


Protesters march during a demonstration, Tuesday, March 7, 2023 in Paris. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators across France took part Tuesday in a new round of protests and strikes against the government's plan to raise the retirement age to 64, in what unions hope will be their biggest show of force against the proposal. 
(AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)


JADE LE DELEY
Thu, March 9, 2023

PARIS (AP) — Young people in France — including some who haven’t even entered the job market yet — are protesting Thursday against the government’s push to raise the retirement age.

Students plan to block access to some universities and high schools, and a youth-led protest is planned in Paris on Thursday, as part of nationwide strikes and demonstrations against the pension bill under debate in parliament.

For a generation already worried about inflation, uncertain job prospects and climate change, the retirement bill is stirring up broader questions about the value of work.

“I don’t want to work all my life and be exhausted at the end,” said Djana Farhaig, a 15-year-old who blocked her Paris high school with other students during a protest action last month. “It is important for us to show that the youth is engaged for its future.”

People in their teens and early 20s have taken part in protests against the retirement reform since the movement kicked off in January, but student groups and unions are seeking to call attention to young people's concerns Thursday.

President Emmanuel Macron wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and make other changes he says are needed to keep the public pension system financially stable as the population ages. Opponents argue that wealthy taxpayers or companies should pitch in more to finance the system instead.

Quentin Queller, a 23-year-old student who attended an earlier round of protests, said, “64 is so far away, it is depressing.”

He questioned the idea that hard work equals happiness, arguing that “we should work less and have more free time.” He and others echoed concerns by older protesters that instead of working to live, France is moving toward a system where people would have to live for work.

At one protest, a teenage boy held a placard saying: “I don’t want my parents to die at work.”

Thomas Coutrot, an economist specializing in health and conditions of work, described a widespread sentiment that “work has become unbearable.”

“Young people perceive that the conditions of work are deteriorating and that workers don’t understand anymore why they work,” he said.

The young protesters include many supporters of the far-left France Unbowed party and other left-wing groups, but also others. They see it as a fundamental right to be able to live on a state pension, and perceive the bill as a rollback of hard-won social achievements.

Elisa Lepetit, 18, is already working part-time in a bar alongside her studies to become a teacher, and can’t afford to go on strike. But she supports the protests.

“I want to become a teacher, but I can’t see myself working until 64,” she said. “The goal after a lifetime of hard work is to be able to spend time with my family.”

Some take a more apocalyptic view, saying their time on Earth is already threatened by climate change. "Working until 67 when it will be over 55 degrees (Celsius) makes no sense,'' joked Anissa Saudemont, 29, whose job in the media sector is related to ecology.

While young people are often present at French protest movements, Paolo Stuppia, a sociologist at the Sorbonne and at California State Polytechnic University in Humboldt, said an especially large number are taking part in the campaign against the retirement bill.

They include people who also march for climate action, LGBTQ rights, or against racial and gender-based discrimination, Stuppia said, and who are making a link with a pension bill they also see as unfair.

“For young people, their future seems to be completely closed and this reform is part of a model they want to question,” Stuppia said.

France workers keep up the pressure after mass pensions protests


Alice Hackman with AFP bureaux
Wed, 8 March 2023 


French unions on Wednesday pressed a standoff with the government over a deeply unpopular pensions overhaul, with fuel deliveries, trains and flights disrupted for a second day following mass rallies.

Key sea ports were also blockaded, as dock workers were among those to join rolling strikes seeking to convince President Emmanuel Macron to reverse course on the bill he has championed.

The government says raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and stiffening the requirements for a full pension are essential to keep the system from sinking into deficit.

France lags behind most of its European neighbours, which have hiked the retirement age to 65 or above.

But the changes have faced stiff resistance in parliament and in the street since mid-January, with the opposition and unions charging the changes are unfair, especially for low-skilled workers and women.

Unions on Tuesday night called for an urgent meeting with the president after strikes hobbled the country and 1.28 million people took to the streets, according to official figures.

But the presidency has not yet directly responded to their request.

Unions have announced a new day of demonstrations for Saturday, and some have vowed to keep up walkouts with rolling indefinite strikes.

- 'Extra pressure' -


Eric Sellini, national coordinator of the CGT union federation at energy giant TotalEnergies, said workers at most fuel shipping sites were again on strike on Wednesday morning.

The FO union at the same company said the action was necessary to "put extra pressure on the government".

Production however did not appear to have stopped at the refineries, and TotalEnergies has said its petrol stations are well stocked.

In the transport sector, national railway operator SNCF said more than half of high-speed trains had been cancelled, with only one train in 10 operating between provinces.

International rail travel remained slightly affected, with three out of four Eurostar trains running.

One in five Air France flights did not take off, with more hassle due at airports nationwide on Thursday and Friday as air traffic controllers keep up their strike.

Disgruntled dock workers were preventing access to several ports including the key hubs of Marseille on the Mediterranean and Le Havre on the Channel, the CGT said.

The port blockages have prevented new deliveries by sea of liquified natural gas, though the hydrocarbon continues to flow into France through pipelines from Norway and Spain.

- Cabinet 'door open' -

Strikers in the energy sector have since Tuesday staged wildcat power cuts, plunging certain sites across the country into darkness.

Government spokesman Olivier Veran said on Wednesday morning that officials remained open to dialogue as the bill makes its way through parliament.

"The government's door is more than open," Veran told RTL radio.

But "we respect the institutions," he said. "The government and prime minister are leading the text through parliament."

The reform is now being debated in the upper-house Senate, with a vote by both houses of parliament expected by the middle of the month or by March 26 at the latest.

The government hopes to be able to push through the bill with backing from the right, without having to resort to a controversial mechanism that would bypass a parliamentary vote but risk sparking more anger among voters.

Some two in three people are against the pensions reform, but around the same number believe it will be implemented, according to a poll by the Elabe survey group published on Monday.

Wednesday's protests were some of the biggest in decades and slightly bigger than a previous round of demonstrations on January 31.

burs-ah/sjw/yad

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