Protest and strikes of the CGT union 2021 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Part of protests against Emmanuel Macron | |||
Date | 19 January – 6 February 2021 | ||
Location | France | ||
Caused by | French pension reform proposal Economic and employment impacts of COVID-19 Proposed laws granting police greater powers and restricting civil liberties | ||
Goals | Labor rights Civil liberties | ||
Methods |
| ||
Parties to the civil conflict | |||
Lead figures | |||
|
The 2021 French labor protests were a series of protests and strikes organized by the General Confederation of Labour (France) (CGT), other trade unions, and French citizens dissatisfied with the country's economic and employment conditions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. These were followed by protests against proposed laws that would give greater powers to police.[ citation needed ]
Three student unions – the National Union of Secondary Students, Mouvement national lycéen , and Fédération indépendante et démocratique lycéenne – gathered [ when? ] to announce protests against the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting health, economic, and social consequences. [1] [ not specific enough to verify ] They accused the government of making decisions which had negative impacts on employment and youth. Trade unions and other activist organizations decided to mobilize for protests in January and early February to call for job security, especially in the public service.[ citation needed ]
The first of these protests took place on Tuesday, 19 January 2021, in Marseille. Theatre actors gathered, expressing dissatisfaction with the month-long closure of theatres due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [2] On 20 January 2021, students from various parts of France gathered in Paris and several other cities chanting the slogan: "Defend living conditions and studies." [3] In Paris, on 21 January 2021, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Health, waving posters that read: "Our struggle, your health", "Increase our salaries", and "Money for the hospital, not the capital". They pointed out the poor working conditions of "all medical, social, health and sanitation workers". Staff of hospitals and nursing homes were offered a salary increase of 183 Euros net minimum as part of the Ségur de la santé consultations with some health professionals, while other workers in the sector were "forgotten" even though "we have equivalent diplomas." [4]
On 23 January, workers from CGT and other worker unions, as well as workers at companies including Sanofi, Cargill, SKF, and General Electric, protested against layoffs; members of the yellow vests movement, along with left-wing parliamentarians including Left Party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, attended this protest. [5]
At the invitation of several yellow vests collectives and as part of mobilizations against proposed laws threatening civil liberties – the global security law proposal and the law enforcing respect for the principles of the republic (also known as the law "against separatism") – a united march for freedom was scheduled for Saturday, 23 January 2021, in Paris. The meeting began at 11:00 a.m. in front of the State Council and ended at noon at the Place du Palais-Royal. The convergence took place at 2:00 p.m. in front of the National Assembly.[ citation needed ]
On 31 January 2021, several thousand members of student associations and the LGBTQ community gathered in Paris to protest against poor educational and social conditions. [6]
The main rally organized by the CGT took place on 4 February 2021 in Paris and other cities across France. Participants came from across all social classes and industries. [7] [1] [ not specific enough to verify ] In Paris, protests by higher education unions, activists, and teachers saw minor incidents between police and protesters. [8]
Unions in Bordeaux chose 6 February 2021 for their own protest and national strike to demand pension reform. Several hundred people gathered on this occasion. [9]
The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.
The Bourse du Travail, a French form of the labour council, were working class organizations that encouraged mutual aid, education, and self-organization amongst their members in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The 2009 May Day protests were a series of international protests that took place across Europe, Asia and in the other parts of the world due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the resulting Great Recession. Several May Day marches, which are traditional events, had turned violent in Germany, Turkey and Venezuela as riot police battled protesters in their respective countries. Banks and shops had been attacked in Turkey.
Confédération générale du travail du Burkina is a revolutionary national trade union centre in Burkina Faso. Bassolma Bazié the general secretary of CGT-B.
The 2010 pension reform strikes in France were a series of general strikes and demonstrations which occurred in France throughout September and October 2010.
KEDGE Business School is a triple accredited French business school and grande école. The school was founded in 2013 from the merger of two grandes écoles: Bordeaux Ecole de Management, founded in 1874 in Bordeaux; and EUROMED Management in Marseilles, founded in 1872 in Marseille. KEDGE has campuses in France ; Senegal (Dakar); Côte d'Ivoire (Abidjan); and China.
Georges Louis François Yvetot was a French typographer, anarcho-syndicalist and anti-militarist. He was secretary general of the Fédération des Bourses de travail and deputy secretary general of the Confédération générale du travail in the period leading up to World War I (1914–18). He kept a low profile during the war, and in 1918 was dismissed from the CGT leadership. After the war he contributed to many anarchist journals. He died in poverty during World War II (1939–45).
Eugène Hénaff was a French cement worker, Communist, trade union leader and member of the French Resistance during World War II (1939–45).
Benoît Frachon was a French metalworker and trade union leader who was one of the leaders of the French Communist Party and of the French Resistance during World War II (1939–45). He was Secretary-General of the Confédération générale du travail (CGT) from 1945 to 1967.
Since Emmanuel Macron was elected President of France on 7 May 2017, a series of protests have been conducted by trade union activists, left-wing activists and right-wing activists in opposition to what protesters consider to be neoliberal policies and globalism, his support of state visits by certain world leaders, his positions on French labour law reform, as well as various comments or policy proposals he has made since assuming the presidency.
Antide Boyer was a French manual worker, Provençal dialect writer and journalist from the south of France who became a socialist deputy. He supported strikes and was involved in the fight for worker's rights around the turn of the 19th century. He participated as a volunteer in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.
The Yellow Vests Protests or Yellow Jackets Protests or Yellow Vests Revolution are a series of populist, grassroots weekly protests in France that began on 17 November 2018. At first the protestors advocated economic justice; later they called for institutional political reforms.
Paul Lapeyre was a militant anarchist, anarcho-syndicalist and free-thinker.
A strike began on 5 December 2019 to protest against broad changes to France's pension system proposed by President Emmanuel Macron. Reforming the pensions was one of President Macron's promises and there are three primary proposals of the pension reform plan. The first is to create a universal state retirement plan, which would replace the 42 individual retirement plans that exist in France. The second is a "points system", to give a pension in proportion to the contributions paid. The third is to "improve the pensions of the most disadvantaged." The result of the system would increase the retirement age of many jobs in France.
Philippe Martinez is a French trade unionist. He has been the general secretary of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) since 2015.
The COVID-19 pandemic in France has resulted in 37,531,910 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 158,580 deaths.
Vanesa Campos was a trans sex worker and an undocumented migrant from Peru living in Paris. She was 36 when she got killed at the Bois de Boulogne during the night of 16 to 17 August 2018. Her murder occurred after she resisted a group of men armed with a gun stolen from a police officer.
The 2021–22 Ligue 1 season, also known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, was a French association football tournament within Ligue 1. It was the 84th season since its establishment. It began on 6 August 2021 and concluded on 21 May 2022. The league fixtures were announced on 25 June 2021. Lille were the defending champions.
L’affaire des 16 de Basse-Pointe or the "Case of the Basse-Pointe Sixteen" is an unsolved French criminal case that lasted from 1948 until 1951. The trial went beyond the framework of the Assize Court to become a trial about French colonialism in the Antilles. It was also notable for the outpouring of solidarity from trade union and communist movements in Martinique and in mainland France, Bordeaux in particular.
Thousands of people across France came to the streets in October of 2022, launching a statewide strike against the rise in the cost of living. The demonstrations erupted following weeks of "walkouts" that have crippled oil refineries and caused gasoline shortages. The demonstrations have been described by Caroline Pailliez and Clotaire Achi of Reuters as the "stiffest challenge" for Emanuel Macron since his re-election in May 2022.