French President Emmanuel Macron's ability to deliver his pension reform is being tested as labor unions extended their strike to Dec. 9.
Workers in sectors including the Paris metro, national railways, nuclear plants, garbage collectors, schools, hospitals, air-traffic controllers, airlines and broadcasters walked off work Thursday. More than 120,000 people are marching in cities from Lyon to Nantes and Marseille. Protesters in Paris began their march Thursday afternoon.
Unions opposing Mr. Macron's plan for a top-to-bottom rebuilding of the pension system have threatened to bring France to a standstill until the government backs down. The president's office said he was "calm and determined" in the face of the indefinite strike.
Mr. Macron's Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is expected to unveil the details of the pension reform as soon as next week.
"There are margins for negotiation with labor unions," the government's spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye said Thursday. "If I say the government's door is open, it means it's open."
Digging in
Labor unions are digging in. Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT union, said labor representatives have gotten "no signs" from the government that would make them change their minds about continuing the protests.
"I have told the government over and over again to rewrite its project," he said on France Info radio.
Mr. Macron's plan is to abolish a pension system with 42 different benefit regimes for different classes of workers and replace it with a universal points-based system. In the 21st century, he argues, workers don't have linear careers, as was assumed in 1945 when France's pension system was conceived. The multitude of regimes has become "corporatist," leading to injustice, complexity and failures, the government says.
Mr. Macron, who faced violent grassroots Yellow Vest protests last year, is paying close attention to any potential security issues, an official at the Elysee Palace told reporters in Paris.
Mr. Martinez said labor unions will seek to ensure that there's no violence during the street protests. The union leader said labor groups will gather tomorrow to discuss plans for new days of protests.
Strikes have been the undoing of previous French governments and represent a major test for Mr. Macron. His office reiterated Thursday that he will stick to his plans to "reform and modernize" France, noting that the project is in line with the mandate he was given by voters. The president "wants to build the welfare state of the 21st century," the official said.
While Mr. Macron has already barreled through reforms of tax and labor laws, history shows pensions won't be nearly as easy. In 1995, Prime Minister Alain Juppe abandoned his pension-reform plan after strikes paralyzed the country for about a month.