Paris/London CNN —
Strikes disrupted trains, flights, schools and businesses in France on Thursday as unions led massive protests against government plans to raise the retirement age for most workers.
Protests in major French cities, including Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes and Nice, halted many transport services. The Eiffel Tower was closed to visitors.
Police used tear gas during low-level clashes with protesters in Paris, and by 11 a.m. ET they had rounded up more than 30 people for questioning, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.
Eight of the biggest unions have called for a “first day of strikes and protests” against the pension reforms unveiled by President Emmanuel Macron’s government. The legislation will require French citizens to work until the age of 64, up from 62 currently, to qualify for a full state pension.
The French government said it was necessary to tackle a pension fund deficit, but the reforms have angered workers at a time when the cost of living is rising.
Philippe Martinez, secretary general of France’s largest union, the CGT, told reporters he expected the total number of protesters to exceed 1 million on Thursday.
Among those absent from work are teachers and transport workers. More than 40 percent of primary school teachers and more than a third of high school teachers went on strike, according to the French education ministry.
France’s railways suffered “severe disruption”, according to French rail service SNCF, and Paris metro lines were affected by full or partial closures, the city’s transport authority RATP said on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Eurostar canceled several services between the French capital and London, according to its website, and some flights at Orly Airport were scratched. Charles de Gaulle Airport reported “several delays” due to striking air traffic controllers, but no cancellations.
The CGT, which has registered more than 200 protest events across the country, said the majority of TotalEnergies (TOT) refinery workers had walked out, disrupting the supply of petroleum products. TotalEnergies (TOT) said fuel supplies to its network of petrol stations would not be affected.
Macron’s proposed pension reforms come at a time when workers in France, as elsewhere, are being squeezed by rising food and energy bills. Nurses and ambulance drivers across the UK are also on strike on Thursday over pay and working conditions.
Thousands took part in mass demonstrations on the streets of Paris last year, protesting the cost of living, and strikes by workers demanding higher wages caused petrol pumps to run dry across the country several months ago.
“This reform comes at a time when there is a lot of anger, a lot of frustration, a lot of fatigue. It’s actually coming at the worst time,” CFE-CGC union chief Francois Homeril told CNN on Tuesday, pointing to the inflation that has torn Europe apart this year following the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking to journalists in Spain on Thursday, Macron defended the changes as “fair and responsible”.
“If you want the intergenerational pact to be fair, we have to go ahead with this reform,” he added.
France spent nearly 14% of GDP on public pensions in 2018, more than most other countries, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Government spokesman Olivier Verand told reporters on Wednesday that 40 percent of French workers would be able to retire before 64 under the proposed regime because of exceptions for those who started work early or have physically taxing jobs.
“We have the most protective, most developed system in Europe [for pensions],” he said. “Even after the reforms, we will retire in France better and earlier than in almost all eurozone countries,” he added.
In Europe and many other developed economies, the age at which full pension benefits are received is 65 and is increasingly approaching 67.
Pension overhaul has long been a contentious issue in France, with street protests halting reform efforts in 1995 and successive governments facing stiff opposition to changes that were eventually passed in 2004, 2008 and 2010.
A previous attempt by Macron to revamp France’s pension system was met with national strikes in 2019 before being abandoned due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
French unions are due to meet on Thursday evening to decide whether to continue the strike action.
— Saskya Vandoorne in Paris and Al Goodman in Barcelona contributed reporting.
Add Comment