French Support for Strike Still High With Holiday Plans at Stake

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The majority of French people still favor strikes over pension reforms that have roiled trains and public transit since Dec. 5.

Some 34% support the strikes and 20% are sympathetic to them, an Ifop poll showed, implying that support has remained broadly stable even as the walkouts and demonstrations increasingly threaten to thwart holiday travel. Another 30% of respondents opposed the strikes or felt hostile toward them, in line with the prior week’s survey.

French workers have been protesting proposed changes to one of Europe’s most complex and generous pension programs. The French government wants to phase out special retirement plans for sectors ranging from train conductors to dancers at the Paris Opera Ballet.

The government has repeatedly signaled a willingness to negotiate the plan.

“The prime minister’s door is open,” Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said on French television Sunday. “It’s our duty to balance the system, but the means of reaching that balance are up for discussion.”

“A truce for Christmas is indispensable for French society,” Buzyn added, evoking the plight of doctors and medical professionals who have been spending several hours each day commuting due to the strikes in the Paris region.

One of France’s more moderate unions, the CFDT, joined those opposing the changes last week when Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the government would to seek an increase in the retirement age as part of the reform.

The union, which said a “red line” had been crossed, urged workers to join another day of protests on Dec. 17. In an interview with French newspaper Journal du Dimanche, CFDT leader Laurent Berger said that he would not support strikes continuing through Christmas and New Year, however.

In a statement Friday, the prime minister requested unions submit a plan for the holidays by Tuesday that would allow people to know exactly which trains will run.

If French people have continued to support the strikes, they also support some of the reforms, Ifop’s poll shows. About two-thirds agree with phasing out the special retirement schemes, while only 37% support pushing the age for retirement with full pension to 64.

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