*Sergio Aladio, General Secretary of the Truckers Union of the province of Santa Fe.
THE NECESSARY EVOLUTION
We are all aware that the current context –political, economic, social, climatic– is particularly complex, volatile and uncertain. This is so in our homeland, as in the entire world.
In these periods, it is urgently required to identify reference points that guide us and allow us to navigate our nation for the good of the people.
What is happening these days in France, where the modification of the retirement system is being discussed and disputed, is a valid point of reference for Argentina. Since it is a possible scenario, it is worth asking: what would happen in our country if Would you have a similar situation?
For its part, France has a large middle class and a GDP per capita almost 4 times greater than ours. The protests that are currently taking place there respond to an unpopular reform of the retirement system by the government of Emmanuel Macron and, above all, to the ways adopted to implement it.
In short, the government wants to progressively delay the minimum retirement age of two years to match that of the European Union and also increase the years of contributions, with the aim of reducing the deficit of the system that could represent up to 17 billion euros. in losses by the year 2025, according to the country’s pension statistics agency. The accounts, according to said entity, do not close.
However, the political alliance generated by the current government has not allowed it to secure a parliamentary majority, so it has not been able to guarantee the approval of the reform through the legislative vote. For this reason, last Thursday, March 16, President Macron decided to approve the reform through article 49.3 of the French Constitution, that is, by decree. Although it seems common to us and even frequent to govern by decree, for France it is not so much.
Who said NO to rule by decree in France? It was the unions. Indeed, they are the main protagonists of the fact that the reform has not been carried out without the will of the people. In fact, according to publicly available polls, 7 out of 10 French people oppose the reform of the pension system. It was the workers’ organizations who echoed the people’s demand. Mainly, the French Democratic Confederation of Labor, the CGT, Fuerza Obrera, student and teacher organizations, waste collectors, members of large state companies such as the SNCF (railroads) and EDF (electricity), as well as transport and trucking organizations, such as the National Federation of Transport and Logistics.
These union movements did not fall into political speculation or the search for personal benefits and did what should be done: they put the interests of the workers above all else. There was a bit of a commotion, but the situation is prosecuted within what they establish laws and the democratic system. No one took their feet off the institutional plate.
In this way, the application or not of the reform is now in the hands of the French Constitutional Council, in charge of ensuring the constitutionality of laws and national elections. The response from this body could be given in a month or several, depending on the paths it decides to take. This context could open a window of time so that the parties – the government and the unions – can sit down at a negotiating table to reason together, which was not done well before.
Whatever the result, it has become clear that people ask that those who say they defend them no longer deceive them, that crises call for new leadership with renewed approaches and that structural deficiencies require leaders with determination, but at the same time with the ability to listen and dialogue, to give certainty and security to society.
It is clear to the representatives of the government, as well as capital and workers, that something more is needed to generate true prosperity. It is necessary to evolve, the old paradigms have to be replaced by the new ones and these must be generated together, in a coherent and inclusive way. There is no longer much room for the distracted, the arrogant, the hesitant, or those who exclusively seek their own interest, forgetting the rest.
Of course, both in France and in Argentina.
