Millions march in France as unions threaten broad shutdown

Tough stand: Protesters on top of a sculpture as they demonstrate against the French government's pension reform plan. Macron has shown little sign that he’ll back down and says that the unions must not impeded the life of the rest of the country. — Reuters

PARIS: French labour unions threaten to bring the nation to “a halt” in March as the number of protesters against government pension reform swells to about one million.

On the fourth day of action against the pension overhaul, which includes increasing the minimum retirement age to 64 from 62, 963,000 people joined street demonstrations around France, according to government figures.

The number is higher than the previous round of action last Tuesday, when 757,000 people took to the streets. It is, however, lower than the 1.2 million record turnout on Feb 1.

As with many marches in France, there were occasional clashes between protesters and police.

The unions have concentrated their efforts on organising marches and calling for general strikes. They held the protest last Saturday because many workers couldn’t afford to miss work during the weekday walkouts.

While the protests drew the largest turnout in Paris so far, with 93,000 people, there was little disruption to services, with most trains and public transportation functioning normally across the country. The exception was at Orly airport near Paris, where half the flights were cancelled in the afternoon.

France’s most influential unions have called for another day of action on Thursday, when the age measures of the reform are due to be debated at the National Assembly.

The unions threatened more action and said they’ll shut the country down on March 7 if the government doesn’t give in.

“We can do it,” Laurent Berger, head of the Confederation of French Trade Unions, told reporters last Saturday, citing full consensus among labour organisations on the need to step up pressure against the government.

The breadth and dynamics of street protests in France have often proved make-or-break for past presidents’ reform efforts.

French President Emmanuel Macron now wants to raise it further has so far shown little sign that he’ll back down.

Speaking on the sidelines of a summit of European leaders last Friday, he told reporters that unions must not “block the life of the rest of the country”. — Bloomberg