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As France braces for nationwide protest on Tuesday against the cost of living, Unions for teachers, employees of the energy sector, employees at railroad company SNCF and Parisian metro company RATP are to participate.
This comes after weekslong strikes at the majority of France’s refineries that have led to higher fuel prices and shortages. Employees there have been asking for higher wages and better working conditions.
The government now fears the march, together with the upcoming strike day, could be the start of a monthlong protest movement- especially as President Emmanuel Macron‘s team is working on pension reform to increase the retirement age from 62 to 65.
A political scientist at the Paris-based Center for Political Research at Sciences Po University, Bruno Cautres, thinks such a protest wave could indeed be in the offing.
“Today’s march has attracted a considerable number of participants. That shows how deeply unjust many people feel our system is- also, as they realize some employees are paid a lot more than others,” Cautres added.
“Paradoxically, the strikes at the refineries have highlighted that as certain employees will now receive bonuses of thousands of euros. It might well be that that was the final straw that has now incensed the people,” he said.
According to a Paris-based historian specialized in protest movements, Danielle Tartakowsky: “The number of offensive strikes in companies has been multiplying- that means people don’t strike defensively to prevent cuts from happening; they strike to ask for higher salaries. That’s extraordinary!” she added.
Tartakowsky noted that it is difficult to say if this will lead to monthslong demonstrations like the ones carried out by the so-called yellow vests, who protested for more social justice starting in November 2018.
“You just can’t know what will be the spark that triggers general strikes such as the ones in the 1960s and the 1990s,” she asserted.