Strike in National Education: a widely followed movement on December 5 ?

Six trade union organizations call in a joint press release & agrave; strike on December 5th for a first day of mobilization. Waiting day, wages, working conditions… Several demands are on the table.

Anger in National Education and the Civil Service. “The trade union organizations are calling on civil service employees to hold a day of action, rallies, demonstrations and strikes across the country on December 5, 2024,” they said in a press release published on November 14. An agreement was reached to organize a mobilization and oppose the measures desired by the government and Minister Guillaume Kasbarian concerning the extension of the waiting period for civil service employment to three days, compared to one currently, among others.

“The increase from 1 to 3 days of waiting and the reduction in sick leave compensation are punitive measures as if civil servants were guilty of being sick even though successive governments bear a heavy responsibility in the deterioration of their working conditions and, ultimately, of their health,” specifies a new press release from the FSU, UNSA &Education, CFDT EFRP, CGT Educ'action, SNALC, SUD &Education, dated November 18.

According to them, the reduction in salary will lead to a precariousness of the agents, particularly among the poorest and women. The strike will also be an opportunity to demand the abandonment of the reduction from 100% to 90% of the compensation for sick leave of civil servants. Finally, “the 4,000 job cuts announced will further degrade the daily lives of our colleagues in schools, middle schools and high schools. The “public school is at a tipping point, these measures will push it into the void”, the press release castigates.

“Everyone on strike on December 5th” against the “Kasbarian measures”

Under these conditions, the joint press release from these 6 union organizations calls on staff to go on strike on Thursday, December 5 for a first day of mobilization. They are simply demanding the “withdrawal of the Kasbarian measures”, the elimination of the waiting day, the reinstatement of the GIPA, a revaluation of the index point and the elimination of the Pact. All staff must be revalued, without compensation and a real status must be created for AESH. Job cuts must be cancelled, jobs must be created to reduce class sizes and improve working conditions for all staff,” we can read. Statements topped with the slogan: “all on strike on December 5th.” As a reminder, the 2025 budget proposed by Prime Minister Michel Barnier provides for an “economy at amounting to 1.2 billion euros on the Civil Service.

Only the FO union did not join the call and instead preferred to maintain its proposal to conduct a three-day renewable strike “at the same time as the railway workers' strike”, i.e. on November 21, specified the general secretary of the UIAFP-FO, Christian Grolier, to AFP. "We will take the minister's game at its word: three days of absence, three days of strike", the unionist already said after a meeting of the organizations with the minister.