The GAWU has been following closely the ongoing and widely-supported protests by the workers of France as they seek to rightfully defend any erosion of their gains at this time. Our Union is aware that for many weeks now, thousands of workers and other segments of the population in that country have staged picketing, marches, demonstrations and other activities across that country to express their strong disagreement and vehement opposition to reforms in France’s pension arrangements which would really render the workers worse off.
Our Union has considered that the reforms of the Macron Government will, among other things, hike the pensionable age as well as increase the number of active years before a worker could receive a full pension. Apart from those changes, workers pensions would fall between 10 and 30 per cent. These attempts at undermining social protections, which is also rooted in neo-liberalism, have proven time and time again, to be flawed. We unequivocally support the central Trade Unions of France calls for the plans for these pension reforms to be immediately withdrawn.
We, at this time, express our unstinted solidarity and join with the several voices of support to the working class and all the militant sectors of the people of France. We support their struggle against the French Administration’s anti-workers stance which in, collaboration with the employers stratum, are no doubt seeking to destroy the pension system, the collective agreements, the public services and the social security system.
We also forthwith denounce the unleashing of the repressive State machinery to violently suppress the just struggles of the workers and their staunch allies. In the conditions of the ongoing crisis in France, as well as other developed countries, an effective aspect of the struggles is our class solidarity which has gained importance in these times. We assure the French working class that we stand on their side, in this time of trial and tribulation, and we wish every success in their struggles.
The GAWU is well aware of the value of solidarity to the working-peoples’ struggles and indeed, has been the beneficiary of international solidarity in its many struggles for workers causes.
