Re: France
Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2020 11:53 am
An epochal battle against the French pension reform
pcimarche
3 days ago
The strikes underway in France against the pension reform, which began on December 5, have not stopped for the holidays and do not show signs of stopping, making this mobilization the longest in French history since that of May '68. The unions, starting from the CGT at the head of the movement followed by Force Ouvrière, FSU, Solidaires, Unef and UNL, have just announced that they want to continue the protests in an even more obstinate way and proclaimed a new large-scale inter-professional strike, starting from January 9.
So what is the content of this reform that is provoking such fierce protests and is being challenged with such determination?
The reform
The French pension system is a contribution system (pensions are proportional to the contributions paid during a career) to pay (the contributions of active workers collectively pay current pensions in a logic of intergenerational solidarity). The system has different pension schemes depending on whether the worker belongs to the private or public sector, whether he is an employee or self-employed; to this are added the so-called "special schemes" (for workers of the SNCF railway company, of the company that manages the RATP metro, of the Comédie française, of the Banque de France; for workers in the electricity and gas industries; miners, sailors etc.). In total there are 42 regimes: schemes with their own rules that adapt to the specificities of the different professional categories. The pension is accessed through a calculation of the worked quarters and to decide the amount the average of the best 25 years of career for the private individual and of the last 6 months for the public is considered. The retirement age is 62 years (between 52 and 57 for some workers belonging to special schemes) and the amount of the pension is on average 1,422 euros gross per month. This guarantees a good standard of living, certified by the fact that the risk of poverty for retirees in France is the lowest in Europe with 7%. The retirement age is 62 years (between 52 and 57 for some workers belonging to special schemes) and the amount of the pension is on average 1,422 euros gross per month. This guarantees a good standard of living, certified by the fact that the risk of poverty for retirees in France is the lowest in Europe with 7%. The retirement age is 62 years (between 52 and 57 for some workers belonging to special schemes) and the amount of the pension is on average 1,422 euros gross per month. This guarantees a good standard of living, certified by the fact that the risk of poverty for retirees in France is the lowest in Europe with 7%.
The government wants to reform this differentiated system and replace it with a single points system. The pretext would be the complexity of management, the supposed "privileges" enjoyed by certain categories of workers compared to others and the deficit that would weigh on "social security". However, it is not difficult to guess - and this is the heart of the criticism of the unions and the left - that we would see, perhaps, a simplification of the system, but at the price of a sure leveling down of all pensions.
Technically, the government proposes a reform project in which workers' pension contributions are converted into retirement points and allocated according to the same formula for all. The Delevoye report (from the name of the reform rapporteur, now resigned) proposes as an example in its first preparatory estimates to assign one point for every 10 euros of contributions and then to convert them according to a single calculation rule, which would be 5.50 euros of pension per year every 10 points. Therefore, a worker accumulates points during his career in an individual account, and it is based on what his pension will eventually be calculated when he stops working. Depending on the value of the point, the "virtual capital" accumulated will be transformed into a pension thanks to a "conversion coefficient". The new system would apply from those born in 1975, and although the retirement age remains at 62, to encourage the French to work longer, the so-called "equilibrium age" at 64 is introduced accompanied by a mechanism of bonus-malus: from 1 January 2022, a malus will be applied to those who retire before this age; on the contrary, those who choose to continue working will be entitled to a 5% bonus.
The criticisms of the unions
For unions and the left, such a system will bring about a significant drop in the amount of pensions since the special schemes will be abolished and the calculation of the amounts modified, spreading it over the entire working career (thus not anchoring it to the best years of salary). Furthermore, the question of the value of the points, crucial for determining the amounts, remains vague: who will manage the system? In what way and according to what criteria? What checks? Few certainties, but apparently this value will be modifiable every year on the basis of parameters mainly related to financial discipline - in order to make it possible to adjust the value of the points according to budget needs.
This would prevent the worker from predicting with certainty the amount, which could only be assessed on the eve of retirement. An element of precariousness already present in the labor code following the recent reform in the anti-worker sense (the Loi Travail, which sparked great protests between 2016 and 2018) is therefore introduced, also at the level of social security. A precariousness and uncertainty that would incite us to work longer in the hope of being able to perceive a satisfactory amount. The worker would sail on sight without the security of a sufficient pension, the unions fear that this means having to work longer for a pension that is anyway lower than today. To reinforce this dark picture, he does not reassure the "golden rule" announced in the first communications from the project editor, which would provide for a freeze on the resources of the pension system at its current levels, 14% of GDP. The problem is that the number of retirees will increase by more than a third by 2050. If the system's earnings are frozen, the level of pensions will therefore be adjusted downwards.
Precisely this precariousness and uncertainty - associated however with the certainty that we want to limit the part of national wealth destined for pensions and therefore for the welfare state - would be the viable to the total opening of the pension system to private insurance and investment funds, paving the way way to an increasingly capitalized system (USA model of pension funds), perfect vehicle for breaking up the solidarity relationships implicit in the current collective system for the distribution and thus fueling the financial markets of French workers' savings. Proof would be, according to opponents, the position of the main investment financial companies in support of the reform.
The concerns of the unions are far from clear: in Sweden and Germany, where a similar points system has been introduced for years, poverty has exploded among the oldest and the reform has pushed a large part of the population to always work longer to ensure a less than decent standard of living. Only in Belgium did a large social movement manage in 2018 to prevent the launch of a similar reform in the country, although they had to swallow the toad of the lengthening of the retirement age from 62 to 67 years. An international trend is therefore at work, that of structural reforms, that is, anti-social counter-reforms, similar for each European country also because they are coordinated by the EU Commission with its clear and persistent pro-austerity orientations.
The state of mobilizations and the sense of struggle
Cutting future pensions, lengthening the retirement age, preparing for the privatization of the pension system. In the face of this offensive, the strike initially proclaimed by the workers of the railways and public transport - who are precisely among the beneficiaries of one of the special regimes called to disappear with the reform - has spread like wildfire: teachers, nurses, post office workers and workers of the state electricity company, refinery workers, dock workers. And despite the profound discomforts caused by the almost total paralysis of the means of transport and the large refineries now blocked, the overwhelming majority public opinion continues to support the reasons for the protest.
Here then is that all the attention is turned to 9 January, the fourth day of the national general strike in which French workers will reiterate their request for a pure and simple withdrawal of the reform. A request that a government deaf to popular and extremist discontent has so far opposed the usual dose of police violence and the media the usual ridicule and verbal anti-union violence of the omnipresent liberal commentators. The intent is clear, a new social regression is preparing to favor capitalists and large enterprises, through yet another attack on the welfare state and popular classes, after the attack on the labor code and the elimination of the wealth on the great wealth .
The opposition to the pension reform is a sign of the growing social opposition against this capital strategy which heavily penalizes the working classes. But beyond the social level, it is a furious political struggle that is underway: two models of society collide, the purely liberal one embodied by Macron, and the solidarity and social one embodied by the CGT. Macron is called to the test of what Tatcher did in the 1980s, if the strikers yield, all collective conquests will be sold off in favor of the interests of the large multinational groups and the bourgeoisie and Europe will sink even further into restoration; if the protesters win, given the centrality of a country like France, a reversal of trend in social power relations could occur,
Alberto Ferretti
Sources
https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/ar ... r#Echobox= 1575653056
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/produ ... 0190115-1c
https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/ ... tc?fbclid= IwAR3Uzt94C-mlTFxH2mTsbqYmDZmdiJpxFFQxM58B4wk-obAtBCJq1lsO1Qk
https://www.lavoce.info/archives/62768/ ... -francesi/
https://lottobre.wordpress.com/2019/12/ ... e-a-punti/
https://pcimarche.wordpress.com/2020/01 ... VLUhMnHHgQ
Google Translator
pcimarche
3 days ago
The strikes underway in France against the pension reform, which began on December 5, have not stopped for the holidays and do not show signs of stopping, making this mobilization the longest in French history since that of May '68. The unions, starting from the CGT at the head of the movement followed by Force Ouvrière, FSU, Solidaires, Unef and UNL, have just announced that they want to continue the protests in an even more obstinate way and proclaimed a new large-scale inter-professional strike, starting from January 9.
So what is the content of this reform that is provoking such fierce protests and is being challenged with such determination?
The reform
The French pension system is a contribution system (pensions are proportional to the contributions paid during a career) to pay (the contributions of active workers collectively pay current pensions in a logic of intergenerational solidarity). The system has different pension schemes depending on whether the worker belongs to the private or public sector, whether he is an employee or self-employed; to this are added the so-called "special schemes" (for workers of the SNCF railway company, of the company that manages the RATP metro, of the Comédie française, of the Banque de France; for workers in the electricity and gas industries; miners, sailors etc.). In total there are 42 regimes: schemes with their own rules that adapt to the specificities of the different professional categories. The pension is accessed through a calculation of the worked quarters and to decide the amount the average of the best 25 years of career for the private individual and of the last 6 months for the public is considered. The retirement age is 62 years (between 52 and 57 for some workers belonging to special schemes) and the amount of the pension is on average 1,422 euros gross per month. This guarantees a good standard of living, certified by the fact that the risk of poverty for retirees in France is the lowest in Europe with 7%. The retirement age is 62 years (between 52 and 57 for some workers belonging to special schemes) and the amount of the pension is on average 1,422 euros gross per month. This guarantees a good standard of living, certified by the fact that the risk of poverty for retirees in France is the lowest in Europe with 7%. The retirement age is 62 years (between 52 and 57 for some workers belonging to special schemes) and the amount of the pension is on average 1,422 euros gross per month. This guarantees a good standard of living, certified by the fact that the risk of poverty for retirees in France is the lowest in Europe with 7%.
The government wants to reform this differentiated system and replace it with a single points system. The pretext would be the complexity of management, the supposed "privileges" enjoyed by certain categories of workers compared to others and the deficit that would weigh on "social security". However, it is not difficult to guess - and this is the heart of the criticism of the unions and the left - that we would see, perhaps, a simplification of the system, but at the price of a sure leveling down of all pensions.
Technically, the government proposes a reform project in which workers' pension contributions are converted into retirement points and allocated according to the same formula for all. The Delevoye report (from the name of the reform rapporteur, now resigned) proposes as an example in its first preparatory estimates to assign one point for every 10 euros of contributions and then to convert them according to a single calculation rule, which would be 5.50 euros of pension per year every 10 points. Therefore, a worker accumulates points during his career in an individual account, and it is based on what his pension will eventually be calculated when he stops working. Depending on the value of the point, the "virtual capital" accumulated will be transformed into a pension thanks to a "conversion coefficient". The new system would apply from those born in 1975, and although the retirement age remains at 62, to encourage the French to work longer, the so-called "equilibrium age" at 64 is introduced accompanied by a mechanism of bonus-malus: from 1 January 2022, a malus will be applied to those who retire before this age; on the contrary, those who choose to continue working will be entitled to a 5% bonus.
The criticisms of the unions
For unions and the left, such a system will bring about a significant drop in the amount of pensions since the special schemes will be abolished and the calculation of the amounts modified, spreading it over the entire working career (thus not anchoring it to the best years of salary). Furthermore, the question of the value of the points, crucial for determining the amounts, remains vague: who will manage the system? In what way and according to what criteria? What checks? Few certainties, but apparently this value will be modifiable every year on the basis of parameters mainly related to financial discipline - in order to make it possible to adjust the value of the points according to budget needs.
This would prevent the worker from predicting with certainty the amount, which could only be assessed on the eve of retirement. An element of precariousness already present in the labor code following the recent reform in the anti-worker sense (the Loi Travail, which sparked great protests between 2016 and 2018) is therefore introduced, also at the level of social security. A precariousness and uncertainty that would incite us to work longer in the hope of being able to perceive a satisfactory amount. The worker would sail on sight without the security of a sufficient pension, the unions fear that this means having to work longer for a pension that is anyway lower than today. To reinforce this dark picture, he does not reassure the "golden rule" announced in the first communications from the project editor, which would provide for a freeze on the resources of the pension system at its current levels, 14% of GDP. The problem is that the number of retirees will increase by more than a third by 2050. If the system's earnings are frozen, the level of pensions will therefore be adjusted downwards.
Precisely this precariousness and uncertainty - associated however with the certainty that we want to limit the part of national wealth destined for pensions and therefore for the welfare state - would be the viable to the total opening of the pension system to private insurance and investment funds, paving the way way to an increasingly capitalized system (USA model of pension funds), perfect vehicle for breaking up the solidarity relationships implicit in the current collective system for the distribution and thus fueling the financial markets of French workers' savings. Proof would be, according to opponents, the position of the main investment financial companies in support of the reform.
The concerns of the unions are far from clear: in Sweden and Germany, where a similar points system has been introduced for years, poverty has exploded among the oldest and the reform has pushed a large part of the population to always work longer to ensure a less than decent standard of living. Only in Belgium did a large social movement manage in 2018 to prevent the launch of a similar reform in the country, although they had to swallow the toad of the lengthening of the retirement age from 62 to 67 years. An international trend is therefore at work, that of structural reforms, that is, anti-social counter-reforms, similar for each European country also because they are coordinated by the EU Commission with its clear and persistent pro-austerity orientations.
The state of mobilizations and the sense of struggle
Cutting future pensions, lengthening the retirement age, preparing for the privatization of the pension system. In the face of this offensive, the strike initially proclaimed by the workers of the railways and public transport - who are precisely among the beneficiaries of one of the special regimes called to disappear with the reform - has spread like wildfire: teachers, nurses, post office workers and workers of the state electricity company, refinery workers, dock workers. And despite the profound discomforts caused by the almost total paralysis of the means of transport and the large refineries now blocked, the overwhelming majority public opinion continues to support the reasons for the protest.
Here then is that all the attention is turned to 9 January, the fourth day of the national general strike in which French workers will reiterate their request for a pure and simple withdrawal of the reform. A request that a government deaf to popular and extremist discontent has so far opposed the usual dose of police violence and the media the usual ridicule and verbal anti-union violence of the omnipresent liberal commentators. The intent is clear, a new social regression is preparing to favor capitalists and large enterprises, through yet another attack on the welfare state and popular classes, after the attack on the labor code and the elimination of the wealth on the great wealth .
The opposition to the pension reform is a sign of the growing social opposition against this capital strategy which heavily penalizes the working classes. But beyond the social level, it is a furious political struggle that is underway: two models of society collide, the purely liberal one embodied by Macron, and the solidarity and social one embodied by the CGT. Macron is called to the test of what Tatcher did in the 1980s, if the strikers yield, all collective conquests will be sold off in favor of the interests of the large multinational groups and the bourgeoisie and Europe will sink even further into restoration; if the protesters win, given the centrality of a country like France, a reversal of trend in social power relations could occur,
Alberto Ferretti
Sources
https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/ar ... r#Echobox= 1575653056
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/produ ... 0190115-1c
https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/ ... tc?fbclid= IwAR3Uzt94C-mlTFxH2mTsbqYmDZmdiJpxFFQxM58B4wk-obAtBCJq1lsO1Qk
https://www.lavoce.info/archives/62768/ ... -francesi/
https://lottobre.wordpress.com/2019/12/ ... e-a-punti/
https://pcimarche.wordpress.com/2020/01 ... VLUhMnHHgQ
Google Translator