The second axis of the teachers' movement, opposition to the Fillon Plan, is common to the vast majority of workers. The plan proposes to increase the number of years you have to work (and pay into the pension system) to qualify for a full pension from 37.5 years to 40 in the public sector to bring it into line with the private sector -then increase it to 42 years for everybody.
Either people would work until well
lage is at present 60) to qualify for a full pension, which would be less than at present, or they would retire at 60 with less than a full pension. In the private sector they could be forced to retire before 60 with even less.
This would be particularly damaging in industry, where workers are often sent into early retirement in their late fifties so that the company can employ younger workers or as part of downsizing or factory closures. The average age at which people retire in France is now 58.7 (63.2 in Britain).
Women would be the worst hit by the Fillon Plan, since caring for children and part-time work means they only pay into the pension system for 32 years on average. The final result of the whole operation would be private pension funds for those before the Fillon Plan is due to be approved by the Council of Ministers, or the beginning of a broader movement. The answer was not long in coming.
It first the government seemed to A
be scoring points. Attempts to prolong the strike on May 14 and 15 on the railways, Paris public transport and the Post Office petered out, largely • •••• because they were actively discouraged by the main union confederation, the CGT.
The second biggest union confederation, the CFDT, signed up to the Fillon Plan in return for a few minor amendments. The government seemed to have achieved its aim of weakening the union front.
However that was illusory. Firstly, the CFDT's defection hardened the opposition from the other unions. Furthermore, a substantial minority of the union denounced the leadership's signature and announced its intention of staying in the movement.
Secondly, the teachers' strike held firm and continued to spread; and thirdly there was a new day of action on May 19, which, although not prepared on the scale of May
13, was nevertheless a success, with 800,000 demonstrators in 70 towns and
cities. the government and 18% the bosses.
For weeks the government and the media had tried to black out the scale of the teachers' strike, while maintaining that in spite of the protests the Fillon plan would go through. Now there is a whiff of panic in the air.
The media are suddenly speaking of a 'crisis in education' and even a 'social crisis'. On May 22 the newspaper Libération pointed out that whereas Prime Minister Raffarin had started out with the aim of not ending up like Alain Juppé (the Prime Minister mortally wounded by the strike movement of the winter of 1995), he could end up in an even worse situation.
In fact, the ghost of 1995 has cast its shadow over the Raffarin government ever since it came to office just over a year ago. The right wing controls the two houses of parliament and the presidency for the first moved carefully, testing the water.
While it was pressured by the MEDEF employers' organisation and the EU to go on the offensive, it was afraid of the possible reaction. Finally, counting on a weak and demoralised parliamentary opposition and a lack of co-ordinated opposition from the unions, it decided to advance on the fronts of privatisation, pension reform and attacks ••• on public services.
The first sign of workers resistance was a massive demonstration by employees of the state electricity company EDF, threatened with privatisation, on October 3. Then on November 26 a rail workers' strike and demonstration was joined by many other public sector workers.
without any call by the unions, 300,000 struck and 100,000 demonstrated in Paris. A series of one-day teachers' strikes followed. Then in January a ballot of EDF employees voted 'No' to a planned pension reform essential to privatisation. This was against the advice of the main union leaderships But Raffarin ploughed on.
A decisive test of strength is now under way. The CT has maintained the threat of a general strike from June 3 if the governPolls show that