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France/Luxembourg“Border workers will have bad surprises” with their retirement
LUXEMBOURG/FRANCE – The OGBL once again showed its support for the French strikers on Wednesday on the eve of a day of mobilization in France. Highlighting the impact of the pension reform for cross-border workers.
Gatherings take place regularly in border towns, such as here in Metz.
Marine Meunier/The essential
The OGBL “fully supports the current strike movement in France against the pension reform”, insisted on Wednesday Nora Back, president of the union, in the presence of officials from the hexagonal CGT union, in Luxembourg. Denis Schnabel, CGT Grand-Est general secretary, described a reform that was “deeply unfair and dogmatic, generating new inequalities”. The two unions call to follow the day of mobilization scheduled for Thursday in France, with parades taking place in border towns.
The text voted in France by a special and controversial device (article 49.3 of the Constitution) “will also concern cross-border workers, there will therefore be an impact in Luxembourg”, affirms Christian Simon-Lacroix, responsible for French cross-border workers at the OGBL. He took the theoretical example of “a 60-year-old woman who worked 20 years in France, then 20 in Luxembourg”. In the eyes of the Grand Duchy, she would be entitled to the pension, paid for half of her professional career. “But in France, he would be asked to work two more years”, the French legal age being gradually raised to 64.
According to the trade unionist, she would in fact “find it difficult to stop working, because it would not be financially tenable” with a half-retirement from Luxembourg and nothing from France. She should wait to receive her French share, “hit with a discount”. According to Christian Simon-Lacroix, “it will be a bad surprise for many workers, from the 1965 generation”. According to him, “40% of French cross-border workers occupy difficult and invisible professions, for which the workers are worn out and therefore can no longer work”.
The OGBL and the CGT expressed their solidarity.
JG
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