Pension reform: railway workers, garbage collectors and electricians do not give up


During the general assembly of railway workers, at the Gare de Lyon, in Paris, on the occasion of the inter-union mobilization against the pension reform, March 7, 2023.

Despite the boost given to the discussion in the Senate and a government that does not rule out the use of 49.3 to raise the legal retirement age from 62 to 64, energy companies, railway workers and Parisian garbage collectors remain mobilized against the reform. They are determined to make the anger of the French heard and recognized.

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For these employees, the ” contempt “ of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, who refuses to receive union officials and remains deaf to messages from the street does not pass. They continue their renewable strike and their actions punch. Rail traffic remains disrupted and trash cans are piling up.

Arms go up, many arms. So much for “the turtle technique”as one of the activists of the National Mines-Energy CGT Federation calls it: massaging as much as possible to help comrades get out, hooded and equipped in overalls, from a key building, the “Ampere source substation”.

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This Thursday, March 9, it is past noon, in Saint-Denis, and the power is cut during the lunch break. Sites concerned: the Olympic Village construction site, a commercial area near the Stade de France and data centers. Under the swirls of smoke, some 300 activists gather, according to the organization, as well as the Communist deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis Stéphane Peu and his “rebellious” colleagues, Thomas Portes (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Antoine Léaument ( Essonne), tricolor scarves in evidence. Enedis denounces a “unlawful action”. The distribution network manager says having dispatched bailiffs to lodge a complaint.

“Black Week”

The CGT, majority among electricians and gas, intends to continue strike and actions until the withdrawal of the reform project. “More than 10,000 megawatts each day on average (…) have been deleted from the network! »writes the union, Friday, March 10, establishing the balance sheet of the “black week”. In other words, the equivalent of a dozen nuclear reactors has been “withdrawn”. Compensating for these drops in power implies that the electrician EDF – therefore the State, its shareholder – pays a high price to obtain replacement electrons.

The strike is also continuing in the LNG port terminals. At least until Tuesday March 14 for those of the Elengy company: two in Fos-sur-Mer, in the Bouches-du-Rhône, one in Montoir-de-Bretagne, in the Loire-Atlantique. And at least until Monday 13 for that of Dunkirk (North), managed in particular by the Belgian group Fluxys. Without these infrastructures, it is impossible to obtain supplies of liquefied natural gas.

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