Paris Airport Employees To Go On Strike Over Pension Reform On January 31 - Reports

PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th January, 2023) French unions announced that their members working at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport will go on strike against the controversial pension reform on January 31, French media reported on Tuesday.

According to the RMC radio station, airport unions agreed at a general meeting to support the nationwide protest movement and call for a massive strike on January 31.

Airport employees will also demand higher wages, the media added.

"It is necessary to block all strategic sectors, all key industries so that the government abandons the reform. There are 100,000 of us at the airport. (If we) lock down the airport, (we) will lock down the economy," the spokesperson for the CGT union was quoted as saying by RMC.

Cable railway workers at French ski resorts will also join the strike while in the middle of the high season for winter sports activities, the BFMTV broadcaster said. The strike is unlikely to last longer than one day, but the workers will join another protest action scheduled for next month, media said. A total of 17,000 people reportedly service cable railways in France.

Last week, France's leading trade unions announced a second nationwide demonstration against the reform on January 31. On January 19, over 200 demonstrations were held across the country, with the largest protests taking place in Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille and Nantes. Around 2 million people took part in protest actions in France that day, according to the CGT union.

On January 10, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne presented draft pension reform legislation, which the government plans to implement in September 2023. According to Borne's plan, the French government will begin to raise the retirement age in the country by three months per year from September 1, gradually increasing it from the current age of 62 to 64 by 2030.