French Unions Warn Macron Pension Strikes Will Drag On for Months
France’s hardleft trade unions on Friday threatened industrial action for months to come, as they searched for a way to force President Emmanuel Macron to ditch the biggest overhaul of the country’s pension system since World War Two.
The unions have been locked in battle with Macron over the fate of France’s generous pension benefits since early December. The former investment banker has made some concessions to the unions but refuses to abandon his reform.
The unions on Friday brought thousands of protesters onto the streets for a seventh round of nationwide demonstrations, although their large-scale actions are petering out and they are increasingly resorting to wildcat actions to cause disruption.
“Our determination remains intact,” Yves Veyrier, head of the Force Ouvriere union, told reporters ahead of a street march in Paris. “We have weeks, months, of protest ahead of us.”
Macron wants to streamline the existing set-up of 42 different pension schemes, each with their own levels of contributions and benefits, into a single system that gives every pensioner the same rights for each euro contributed.
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