The French declared President Macron a “retirement battle”

“Black Thursday” is the day when the French trade unions will actually deliver an ultimatum to Emmanuel Macron with protest actions: to retreat from plans to raise the official retirement age from 62 to 64 years. France is bracing for wide-ranging chaos as union leaders called on citizens to “mass mobilize,” according to The Guardian. What does it mean?

Three-quarters of the teachers are expected to be preparing to strike, causing schools to close. The protests will also lead to disruptions in transport and medical services. The railroad will also stop. Intercity flights will be particularly hard hit. Already in the Paris metro they said that the movement would be very difficult, and some flights would be completely canceled. Truck drivers and delivery couriers are also ready to join the strikes. Refinery workers will also stop work.

Employees of many theaters, music venues and banks will join the action. Police are gearing up for protesters to take to the streets across the country.

Yes, the point is precisely in the deep dissatisfaction with the pension reform being promoted by the government. Macron explains his decision by saying that the French must work longer to put the pension system on a more sound financial footing. Unions respond by saying that funds can be found anywhere and expect that no final decision will be made. It should be noted that early retirement age and generous pension payments are highly valued in France, and therefore any change in this area causes serious resistance from citizens.

A recent poll showed that the French public agrees with the need for changes to the pension system, but disagrees with what the government is proposing. An IFOP (French Institute of Public Opinion) poll for France’s main Sunday newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, showed that 68% of those polled were hostile to the government’s measures.

Union leaders said Thursday would be “the first day of mobilization” in their fight to drop pension plans. They demand the immediate lifting of the measures, calling them “unfair and unnecessary.” The head of the CGT trade union, Philippe Martinez, expressed the hope that “several million people” would take part in the strike and demonstration.

Despite a 2007 law in France that states that transport workers are required to maintain a minimum level of service in any emergency, representatives of the industry said that this is not guaranteed. Transport Minister Clément Beaune reaffirmed that people should prepare for a “hard day” and advised them to work from home rather than having to struggle to get to offices.

The government continues to urge workers not to paralyze the country, intending to continue to “push” the measure through parliament with the help of the local conservative party “Republicans” (Les Républicains). As a fallback, the government said it would use a constitutional measure known as 49:3 to pass the law without parliamentary debate or a vote.

The current measures are no longer a novelty for France. A significant part of successive presidents tried to contribute to the issue of raising the retirement age.

In 1995, then President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Alain Juppe attempted to introduce a universal system and end the many different “special regimes” enjoyed by public sector workers. Then two million people took to the streets, the protests lasted about a month. The changes have been cancelled.

In 2010, another conservative president, Nicolas Sarkozy, raised the retirement age from 60 to 62, with a full pension for those with at least 41.5 years of service. However, the decision to grant a pension was a certain compromise. It took literally one week of strikes, blockades of oil refineries and nationwide protests.

Macron’s predecessor, François Hollande, a member of the Socialist Party, promised to solve the problem of the pension system deficit, but ultimately backed away from major changes after tens of thousands of people protested again. He only passed a law gradually increasing the number of years required to receive a full pension – up to 43 years by 2035. But there were also mitigations. Those who worked in production with heavy physical labor were allowed to retire earlier.

The current president of France has probably gone the farthest. Macron made it the backbone of his 2017 election campaign and made his first push two years later, sparking protests and strikes by transport workers. When the COVID pandemic hit, the changes were delayed… But not cancelled. During his campaign last year, Macron again vowed to overhaul the pension system, insisting measures were needed to “rescue” it from a deficit.

“People are just fed up. When we talk to colleagues, they are disgusted that they have to continue working for another two or three years,” Simone Legendre, a member of the CFE-CGC union, told Reuters, representing office workers who have already been on strike this week over wages, and now join the pension strike.

The largest trade union, CFDT, issued a general call to stop work and join the protests, calling this day the starting point. “Of course, strikes will snowball over time,” said Thomas Kavel, a trade union representative from the CFDT railway department.

CFE-CGC member Simone Legendre commented on the prospects for the upcoming protests: “We can’t be sure the government will back down, but we have to give it everything we have. Now or never”.

And indeed, the trade unions have a feeling that nothing will change, because it has been stated more than once that the “penetrating” power of the protesters is no longer the same as it was before. Strikes in France became less frequent, less destructive and less successful. And if we soberly assess the changes in the pension system in 2010 and 2014, which also caused protests, they were eventually adopted anyway.