Referencing the arm-wrestle between trade unions and Emmanuel Macron’s government over the pension overhaul, he said: “I support all good reforms, namely those designed to help the country move forward… But a government should never aim for social confrontation”. A confrontation is “inevitable,” M Woerth continued. The centrist government has pledged to plough ahead with its explosive pension reform, which has prompted an unlimited nationwide strike and paralysed transport services.
Transport systems were paralysed for a fifth consecutive day on Monday as workers at the state-run railway firm SNCF and Paris public transport system RATP extended their strike against the pension changes.
The rolling strike pits trade unions determined to safeguard worker protections against the reformist Macron government. Both sides are refusing to back down.
Hardline CGT union leader Philippe Martinez said the strike action would continue until the government agreed to drop its reform plans.
“We will continue [striking] until the government withdraws the reform,” M Martinez told weekly newspaper the Journal du Dimanche (JDD).
The Macron government “is disconnected from a number of realities,” he continued. “Things evolve very rapidly. The anger is great.”
M Martinez, who has repeatedly voiced his opposition to the reform, said that “the ball is now in the government’s court”, adding: “The government must listen to this anger and wipe the slate clean.”
“The French are no fools – they know that the government” is responsible for the current unrest, he continued, adding that the pension reform was “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.
The Macron government, for its part, said it would see through the pension reform, but sought to appease unions with promises of a gradual introduction of the new system.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told the JDD in an interview published on Sunday: “I am determined to take this reform to its completion.
“But I am also determined to take into account and respond to people’s concerns.”
“If we do not implement a thorough, serious and progressive reform today, someone else will implement another one tomorrow, but really brutally”.
M Philippe will unveil a detailed outline of the pension reform on Wednesday.
The Macron government wants to replace a system comprised of 42 separate pension plans, each with varying benefits, with a single, points-based system under which for each euro contributed, each pensioner has equal rights.
The government has also promised not to touch the legal retirement age of 62, but is set to offer financial incentives to encourage people to work longer.
Unions plan a second mass protest on Tuesday, after Thursday’s first demonstration drew 65,000 people in Paris and 806,000 people nationwide, according to the interior ministry.
Pension reforms by former conservative presidents Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010 and Jacques Chirac in 1995 sparked mass street protests and failed to plug stubborn deficits, which the Macron government hopes to wipe out by 2025.