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The French government and unions are to resume talks Tuesday over a pensions overhaul that has unleashed the longest transport strike in decades, with the premier saying both sides need to “budge a little”.<\/p>\n
As the standoff escalated, with police deployed to oil refineries and fuel depots to prevent a blockade by unions, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said he remained open to discussion.<\/p>\n
“To find a compromise, everyone has to budge a little,” Philippe told the RTL broadcaster on the 34th day of the strike, which has caused travel chaos in Paris and severely impacted inter-city rail services.<\/p>\n
While insisting the pension reform would not be abandoned, Philippe made conciliatory noises about a key sticking point — the government’s insistence that people work longer in order to keep the pension system afloat.<\/p>\n
The moderate CFDT union, with which the government is hoping to do a deal and break the back of the strike, has baulked at government proposals to extend to 64 the age at which people qualify for a full pension — two years after the official retirement age.<\/p>\n
“The pivot age (64) must be removed from the bill,” CFDT leader Laurent Berger said as he arrived at the labour ministry for the talks.<\/p>\n
Philippe said that if unions and employers could come up with a better way to reduce the pension deficit, “I will take it.”<\/p>\n
The hardline CGT union, the biggest at state rail operator SNCF, continued to insist that the government scrap the reforms outright. The CGT has also called for a blockade of France’s eight oil refineries.<\/p>\n
“The only overture we want to hear is ‘we’re stopping everything’,” CGT leader Philippe Martinez told France Inter radio.<\/p>\n
As the standoff continues, public support for the strike, which remained high throughout the first month, has begun to fall.<\/p>\n
A Harris Interactive poll Monday showed 60 percent backing the industrial action, down nine points since it started.<\/p>\n
An Ifop poll gave it just 44 percent backing, down seven points from the previous survey on December 19-20.<\/p>\n
– Retailers hurting –<\/p>\n
The reform would eliminate 42 separate pension schemes that offer early retirement and other advantages, mainly to public-sector workers, in favour of a single system.<\/p>\n
The CGT and Force Ouvriere unions have called for a new day of mass walkouts against the reform on Thursday, which could see schools shut and public transport even more impacted than usual.<\/p>\n
Train operator SNCF says it has lost more than 600 million euros ($670 million) in ticket sales since the strike began on December 5.<\/p>\n
The head of the Paris chamber of trades and crafts said retail sales in the capital were down by between 30 and 40 percent.<\/p>\n
– ‘Gritting our teeth’ –<\/p>\n
As the strike spreads to oil refineries, raising the spectre of petrol shortages, motorists rushed to fill up their tanks.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the FNIC-CGT union told France Info radio on Tuesday that seven out of France’s eight refineries had been brought to a halt.<\/p>\n
As the weeks pass, the number of striking rail and metro workers has tapered off, partly due to lost pay.<\/p>\n
“For now, we are gritting our teeth,” Eric Challal, a striking customer service agent at Gare du Nord station in Paris, told AFP.<\/p>\n
The strike is the longest continuous work stoppage on French railways since the national rail service was created in the 1930s.<\/p>\n
President Emmanuel Macron made the pensions overhaul a key plank in his 2017 election campaign, saying a single points-based system would be fairer.<\/p>\n
The government has already made a series of concessions to the police, military, rail workers and Paris Opera employees, allowing them to continue retiring early or keep their separate benefits for several years to come.<\/p>\n
But most salaried workers born in 1975 or later would be impacted by the new system, in which people would earn points based on lifetime earnings.<\/p>\n
Currently, most pensions are calculated from a worker’s 25 best years of earnings — public workers, however, get payouts based on their last six months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n