Mass protests in France over pensions plan
THOUSANDS OF workers have taken part in protests across France against the government’s plan to raise the retirement age to 64.
Union activists cut electricity to nearly 100,000 properties in Bordeaux and Lyon, while staff at the Eiffel Tower walked off the job.
Even Paris opera workers joined in Tuesday’s nationwide protests, singing an aria of anger.
Despite 13 days of crippling train and subway strikes, French president Emmanuel Macron and his government stayed firm.
Prime minister Edouard Philippe declared his “total” determination to reshape a pension system which unions celebrate as a model for the rest of the world, but which he calls unfair and destined to collapse into debt.
Lighting red flares and marching beneath a blanket of union flags, thousands of workers snaked through French cities such as Brittany on the
Atlantic to the Pyrenees in the south. Hospital workers in scrubs, Air France staff in uniforms and lawyers wearing long black robes joined people from across the workforce in the strikes and protests in higher numbers than the last crosssector walkout last week.
The retirement reform is one of many gripes against Mr Macron, who protesters fear is dismantling France’s costly but envied welfare state. Workers from the CGT union carried out what they called “targeted” blackouts on electricity networks around Lyon and Bordeaux to call attention to their grievances – and their power.