Workers across France are ramping up protests after the government proposed raising the minimum retirement age.
Professionals from all corners of the workforce, including transportation, education and more, are participating in demonstrations that has led police to fire tear gas into crowds of protestors.
This comes as part of the country’s largest unions coming together to oppose President Emmanuel Macron’s administration raising the age of retirement from 62 to 64, sparking outrage from hundreds of thousands of professionals.
“This reform falls at a moment where there is lots of anger, lots of frustration, lots of fatigue. It’s coming at the worst moment, in fact,” said François Hommeril, chief at labor union CFE-CGC.
Protests have led train lines in the country to see “severe disruptions,” with some areas of the region experiencing total closures. Additionally, over 40% of primary school and one-third of high school teachers did not attend work on Thursday.
Despite the fierce backlash, a government spokesperson said that 40% of French workers could still retire before 64 under the new policies — still lower than other developed countries in Europe.
