Sparse rallies and demonstrations “for employment and industry” were held Thursday in several cities in France, before the appointment of a new Prime Minister ordered to respond to the “social emergency” by the CGT, in a context marked by the explosion of social plans.
The Parisian procession did not attract the crowds of big days with a few thousand people gathered, according to an AFP journalist.
Not enough to undermine the determination of Valérie Lefebvre-Haussmann, a bank employee and union leader, who came “in solidarity with industrial employees” threatened with dismissal, “but also because even in our sectors (banks and insurance , Editor’s note) we are not spared.” “In the name of profitability, we close agencies, we thank employees (…) and our salaries stagnate,” she gets annoyed.
Not far away, Nicolas, 37, who wishes to remain anonymous, demands “the right to work in the face of increasingly massive layoffs”.
The rallies, launched by the CGT, joined by Solidaires and FSU, were initiated while the announcements of social plans follow one another in large companies (Auchan, Michelin, Vencorex, PPG, etc.), among subcontractors and small structures, targeting numerous sectors (metallurgy, commerce, public and associative sectors, banks and insurance, chemicals, etc.) almost everywhere in France.
On November 27, the CGT counted 286 social plans. It now lists 300, while taking data from the Altares firm which records 300,000 jobs threatened or eliminated.
“There are social emergencies everywhere in the country,” lamented Sophie Binet, who came alongside employees of Fonderies de Bretagne in Lorient (Morbihan) where “400 jobs are at stake”.
The leader, who once again denounces “this industrial bloodletting”, implored the appointment of “a Prime Minister who responds to social emergencies”, while the name of a new tenant in Matignon is awaited.
– “Complicated to mobilize” –
In addition to the 132 mobilizations that it initiated in nearly 80 departments, the Montreuil headquarters encouraged, from the end of November, “employees to go on strike and occupy their factories to prevent layoffs”.
But the call seems little heard by employees. “It’s complicated to mobilize when you know that you don’t have people to talk to,” says a union source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
For Anthony Bruno, a 23-year-old railway worker present in the Lyon procession, “even if the rate of strikers varies depending on the company, (we must) show that we will have to fight back together.” “We are all attacked, whether we are public or private,” he pleads, but again, only around 200 people came, AFP noted.
Earlier, in Nantes, 1,400 people, according to the prefecture, braved a dry and biting cold like Danielle Stervinou, a former saleswoman and 73-year-old retiree, to defend, among other things, an increase in the value of small pensions: “I receive 759 euros per months and with inflation and increases on all sides, I have the impression that my retirement continues to decline.
Unlike the strike launched by all the union organizations last week in the public service, this time the inter-union did not take a position, divided on the strategies to adopt, further weakening the scale of the mobilization.
Only Solidaires and the FSU joined the movement.
Force Ouvrière, for its part, provided support for “all the initiatives and mobilizations already decided” by its troops locally.
On the rail side, traffic is “normal” for all TGVs, but slight disruptions affect regional trains “with a national average of eight trains out of ten”. In Ile-de-France, the most disrupted lines are the RER D (one train in three on average) and the Transilien line R (one train in five).
In the electricity and gas sector, the strike is being renewed at GRT Gaz, whose employees had already strongly mobilized a week ago.
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