EXPLAINED: Why French Pension Protests Are More Important Than You Think | Cole Stangler | TMR

Cole Stangler gets right into the Emmanuel Macron policy that would raise the French pension age by at least two years for all workers, parsing through the general consensus among the French as an attack on their labor rights, delaying access to the funds that much of the French have spent decades paying and extending their reliance on labor exploitation. After briefly contrasting the French pension program with the US systems of Social Security and Medicare, Cole Stangler wraps up the interview by tackling the constitutionally-guaranteed labor rights in France, and what this means for the protest moving forwards.

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Cole Stangler journalist covering labor and politics in France. And he's here to discuss the protests over Emmanuel Macron's plans to raise the country's retirement age. Cole thanks so much for coming on today. I really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks so much. A little bit of background, some massive all over France. My understanding over a million people were in the streets on different occasions, and a third day of strikes just a few days ago as well. So people are protesting Macron's proposal that he's trying to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. What does that mean within the context of France's benefits system? Yeah so the protest is in response to this proposed hike in the retirement age as you said from 62 to 64. And it's perceived by a lot of people as being fundamentally unfair. That's why we're seeing so much opposition. coming from the left in part. you know for the left this is in some ways not just a symbolic issue but something that they've they've fought for decades to achieve. Which is to have the right to be able to retire with dignity with decent benefits. And so for the left, there's been a March forward to essentially lowering the retirement age into having more time off from work. That's what I think accounts for a lot of the opposition we've seen on the left. You know, speaking with people here and deputies and MPs. You know for them that this question of retirement is something that the left has fought decades and generations for having you know first off less time off. I'm starting to have more time off from work on the weekends. ending child labor. ending you know having lower working hours. retirement is seen as sort of the latest or another step in the sort of March toward social progress if you will. so the left has been very vocal about this. but as you mentioned these protests have been absolutely massive. It's not just the left that's mobilizing. And to get back to that initial Point I made it because this proposed reform is seen as fundamentally unfair for a lot of people. So it would both hike the retirement age from 62 to 64. the earliest age at which you can start receiving benefits would also phase in excuse me accelerate the phase-in of the number of years you need to work to start obtaining a full pension. so that's 43 years. I say that because effectively for a lot of people the retirement age isn't just the earliest age would be 64 if this proposal went through. but for a lot of people, it actually would be more than that in practice, not closer to 67. if you haven't paid those 43 years according to this reform you're going to have to wait a little bit longer. So it's perceived as unfair. And in particular, for blue-collar workers, low-wage workers who've been paying into this system their whole lives. France spends a lot of money on pensions. People contribute a lot to the pension system throughout their careers. And they see this as fundamentally an attack on these rights that they have that they're fundamentally entitled. And so that's why I think we're seeing so much opposition.