French Labor Unions Say Talks on Pension Plan Failed to Advance

(Bloomberg) -- Several French unions said that talks with the government on Thursday had failed to advance and signaled that they planned to continue protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s reform plan in 2020.

Macron’s government has been deadlocked with French labor unions for two weeks over their opposition to his overhaul of the pension system, which aims to merge 42 separate regimes into a single universal points-based system. The plan also offers incentives to raise the age for full retirement benefits to 64 from 62.

The deadlock likely will extend public transportation turmoil and could disrupt Christmas travel plans of millions of people in France. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is seeking a temporary truce to prevent holiday chaos but there’s no indication service will be close to normal.

Philippe said there’s been “concrete” progress in talks with unions over the past two years, though union officials dispute that. The government remains committed to creating a universal system but is open to improving its proposals, Philippe said. Negotiations are set to resume in January.

“Many promises, only promises. The only concrete thing is that the prime minister hasn’t heard the street,” Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT union, said after a meeting at the prime minister’s office in Paris. Martinez called for a new day of nationwide marches on Jan. 9.

The more moderate CFDT union said the meeting with Philippe brought only a small bit of progress and that new talks were planned for early January. Its chief, Laurent Berger, said his union hadn’t decided whether to join the Jan. 9 march.

SUD union chief Yves Veyrier also said the talks on Thursday failed and that his union would join the January march.

Railway company SNCF warned that about half of its trains will run this weekend and 41% on Dec. 23 and 24. Four out of five Eurostar trains between London and France will run on those days. Forecasts for Dec. 25 and 26 will be released on Friday, SNCF said.

--With assistance from Rudy Ruitenberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Alan Katz, Justin Blum

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