Pension reform: “I am not here to bring down a government”, assures Laurent Berger
He has no intention of letting go pension reform. The announcement on long careers made by Elisabeth Borne “Does not respond to the concern” of the French, Judge Laurent Berger, Secretary General of the CFDT, guest of the program “Political Questions” on France Inter, France Television and Le Monde this Sunday morning. The union leader was reacting to the Prime Minister’s proposal to allow those who started working between the ages of 20 and 21 to leave at 63.
“We are going to assess” this new announcement, but “it is not the response to the massive mobilization (…) and to the rejection of the legal retirement age at 64”, he swept away. “We have to put the work back on the job by going back to the idea of the contribution period” which is “the fairest criterion”, advances the secretary general of the CFDT. “You cannot make this reform against the world of work,” he further pleaded.
A great “professional diversity”
After two days of strikes and demonstrations, on January 19 and 31, the last of which exceeded the 2010 participation record, the intersyndicale announced two new days of action, Tuesday 7 and Saturday 11 February. For this second date, the challenge, “is that there are people in the street”, that it is “a popular movement” and that the action is “festive”. “We can amplify the movement,” he hopes. For this, “we are not calling to block the country” because “we must keep public opinion”, pleads Laurent Berger. However, it does not rule out “other actions”.
He welcomed the “incredible number” of demonstrators “in medium-sized towns”, a sign that they were the country’s “workers”, many of whom were demonstrating “for the first time”. “Professional diversity marked me,” he said. “What are the democratic prospects when 1.27 million people (in the street), we pretend that it does not exist? asked the trade unionist.
The text of the pension reform will be examined in the National Assembly from this Monday. The government seeks “political compromise” with the right but “it does not seek to build social compromise”, judge Laurent Berger on the subject. However, “there must be no obstruction” in Parliament on the text, he pleads, still affirming not “to be there to bring down a government” nor “to do anti-Macron”. Moreover, “we have very constructive exchanges with the deputies of the majority”, assures the representative of the CFDT.
