Thousands of retirees have shown Thursday in Paris to denounce their slow precariousness, as well as a degradation of public services.
by Pierre Terraz
Picardie, Champagne-Ardenne, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes … Thousands of retirees came from all over France show in Paris, Thursday, December 2nd afternoon, to the call of nine trade union organizations (CGT, FO, CFTC , CFE-CGC, FSU, solidarity) and associative (FGR-FP, LSR, set and solidarity). The thorny file of pension reform was rejected at 2022 by Emmanuel Macron, and the pensions will be upgraded by 1.1% in 2022 (against 0.4% in 2021). But the inflation forecasting is, she, 2 , 6% this year . Thus, retirees would have lost between 10 and 12% of their purchasing power since 2014, according to the unions.
“The calculation is quickly made: between 2015, my first year of retirement, and 2020, we lost 500 euros a month with my wife. Not only has the cost of living increased, but in addition, with the Increased levies such as the CSG [the generalized social contribution increased by 1.7% in 2018], we lost money. We, retirees, are the eternal forgotten of the Fifteennial of Emmanuel Macron “, plague Jean- Pierre, former pathot at the SNCF. If his case puts him in a strip, he knows yet to have “the chance” to be married, without dependent children, and remains lucid on the situation of some of his comrades.
like that of Jeanne, single, former secretary of Mairie Normande, which affects a little less than 1,000 euros per month. A sum she shares with her daughter: “She is intermittent from the show, in an extremely precarious situation. I stay parent, even if I am retired, so I try to help him financially,” she explains. Before continuing: “We are a whole group, from Normandy by bus especially for the event. Today, some of us have to eat at the restaurants of the heart at the end of the month.”
“It has become extremely difficult to heal”
If, among the protesters, the diagnosis is unanimous, the claims, however, seem more dispersed, despite a framing of the intersyndical. Some would like that the calculation of pensions follow exactly inflation, in order to maintain purchasing power. Others rather require that pensions are indexed again on wages (as before 1987), so that they can no longer be frozen, in case of low inflation, for example. Officially, the unions claim an immediate revaluation of pension pensions up to 300 euros per month, and want no retirement can no longer be evaluated below the SMIC.
The other axis of demands of the protesters is the protection of public services – transport and hospitals at the top of the gondola -, sector, the majority of them comes from. A pension nurse originally from Vendée is indignant: “We have only one urgentist doctor for the whole department! And with the merger of hospitals, we are forced to go to our consultations in Nantes, at the Rochelle … It has become extremely difficult to heal. In addition to the constant decrease in pensions, the case of public service also contributes to the decrease in our means. “
Michel, Ex-Cheminot at SNCF, expresses its concern for the future of rail: “In the past, the hardship of the trade was offset by the statute, which guaranteed employment, more paid leave, a rate retirement Full earlier … For little young people who get launch, there is nothing more. “On this Thursday afternoon, two young girls 18 years old come to testify to intergenerational solidarity attract the curiosity of the protesters. “It’s important for us to show that we are welded with our parents, our grandparents, and all the generations that precede us. And then, we are also the retirees of tomorrow.”