A second round of strikes disrupted French electricity production, public transport and schools on Tuesday. The strike is against President Emmanuel Macron's plan to make people work longer before retirement. He has proposed that the retirement age be increased from 62 to 64. They will also be eligible for a full pension.
Unions, which have scheduled protest rallies across France throughout the day, want to keep the pressure on the government and hope to repeat the large turnout for the first national day of protest on January 19, when over a million took to the streets.
"This reform is unfair and brutal," Luc Farre, the secretary general of the civil servants' UNSA union told Reuters. "Moving (the pension age) to 64 is going backwards, socially."
Transport, schools and the energy sector has been significantly disrupted on Monday. According to the main teacher's union, at least half of all nursery and primary school teachers would be striking. Air France said one in 10 short and medium-haul services would be cancelled, the Guardian reported. In 2010, former president Nicolas Sarkozy raised the retirement age from 60 to 62.
As per polls, the majority of people disapprove of Macron's plan to raise the retirement age. Macron has insisted that the change is necessary to save France's pensions system. Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, has said that raising the pension age to 64 is “not negotiable”.
