Public sector agents are mobilizing on Thursday December 5, 2024 for a day of action and strike at the call of the unions, threatening to open a new social front in the midst of a political crisis, while the government is on borrowed time.
In Paris, the meeting is held near the Ministry of the Economy and Finance at the beginning of the afternoon. According to the Unsa union website, around fifty gatherings have been recorded in France.
The school and the hospital expected in the street
School teachers “responded to the call for a strike from trade union organizations” with almost “65% of strikers announced” in the “first degree”announced the majority FSU-SNUIpp on Tuesday.
Sud Éducation and Unsa have filed a strike notice extending from November 21 to January 20, 2025. It concerns “all staff working in schools, services and educational establishments”.
The hospital will also participate in the movement.
Three measures crystallize anger
The announcement at the end of October by the government of a plan to combat “absenteeism” among civil servants, which should make it possible to generate 1.2 billion euros in savings, strained relations between the unions and the Minister of the civil service, Guillaume Kasbarian, before leading to a breakdown in social dialogue.
The unions demand that the minister renounce three measures which crystallize the anger: the passage of one to three days of waiting for sick civil servants, the reduction from 100% to 90% of remuneration in the event of sick leave, and the non-renewal of payment of a bonus to support purchasing power.
Budget uncertainty
Added to this situation is budgetary uncertainty, with the government still seeking 60 billion euros in efforts to improve public finances at half mast and reduce the deficit to 5% of GDP in 2025, compared to 6.1% in 2024.
If Guillaume Kasbarian had noted the abandonment of a contested proposal to merge the categories of civil servants envisaged by his predecessor, he remained inflexible on the other measures. Decisions “difficult but assumed” made essential by a delicate public finance situation, defends those around him.
The mobilization on Thursday should make it possible to “take a strong action” after “evidence of hostility to the public service”estimates Benoît Teste, public service general secretary of the FSU, which is very established in education.
FO, a major absentee
More than seven months after the last social movement, little followed, by civil servants, “we’re off to something much bigger on Thursday”assures Luc Farré, secretary general of the Unsa civil service, whose organization decided in mid-November to no longer sit in the “social dialogue bodies chaired by the minister”.
The broad inter-union movement – CGT, CFDT, UNSA, FSU, CFE-CGC, Solidaires and FA-FP – however has one major absentee, Force Ouvrière, the first representative union in the entire public service.
The union says it favors a three-day renewable strike on December 10, 11 and 12, in « convergence » with other sectors. However, the organization participates locally in various mobilizations.
The energy sector will also mobilize on Thursday for wages, even if the movement should not be too perceptible to the public, predicts Laurent Koessler, responsible for social dialogue at CFE-Energies.
In our departments
> In Châteauroux, a demonstration is planned for Thursday December 5 at 10 a.m., Place de la République and a rally at 1:30 p.m., hospital courtyard.
> In Tours, a gathering will be held at 2 p.m., Place Jean-Jaurès.
> In Loir-et-Cher, this will happen at 2:30 p.m., at the Pierre Charlot mall in Blois and at 10:30 a.m., Place de la Liberté, in Vendôme.
> In Deux-Sèvres, a demonstration is scheduled in Thouars at 11 a.m. (in front of the theater) and in Niort, also at 11 a.m., in front of the public finance center.
> In Vienne, a demonstration will leave at 2 p.m. from the Madeleine stadium, in Poitiers, towards the prefecture.
