Marches ‘in defence’ of civil service
Public services were disrupted across France yesterday as state sector workers staged strikes and protest marches against President Emmanuel Macron’s attempts to reform Europe’s largest civil service.
The third one-day stoppage ‘‘in defence of public services’’ in a year closed schools and government agencies and disturbed work at hospitals.
In Paris, where unions led a march of 16,000 people, police made 17 arrests among masked anti-capitalist protesters who hurled projectiles at them and attempted to set alight cars and damage buildings.
The strikes were called by unions against Macron’s moves to streamline France’s sprawling civil service.
The strikes and protest marches in Paris and some 140 other towns were aimed at reversing the president’s pledge to cut 120,000 posts by 2022. That represents 2 per cent of the 5.7 million state employees.
Alliance, a major police union, disrupted traffic on the Paris outskirts and in Toulouse in protest against any attempt to end the force’s special retirement and pension regimes.
Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT union, which led the Paris march, said: ‘‘We are demonstrating in defence of a public service that is there to serve everyone, wherever in the country they live.’’ His union is seeking to foment a national general strike. However, the CGT’s power has waned in recent years and it has been overtaken in membership by the moderate CFDT.
Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT, criticised the repeated strikes, saying that the tactic played into the hands of Macron. ‘‘The government wants to drive us towards radicalism. The real path for us is to do the job inside businesses by making solid proposals,’’ he said.
The SNCF state railways remained at work, but will today stage the latest in a series of 48-hour strikes against an overhaul that will deprive recruits of the guaranteed jobs, advancement and early retirement enjoyed by 170,000 existing staff.
At the weekend, Left-wing opponents of the Macron reforms are to stage a second festive march of anti-government defiance through Paris. The aim is to keep up pressure on Macron, whose moves to modernise France have earned him the nickname of ‘‘president of the rich’’.
Macron has staked his credibility on applying his railway reforms, which have been approved by the lower house of parliament and reach the senate this week. Opinion polls show that support for the reforms has remained strong. – The Times