“Freezing the index point means a pay cut for millions of public officials who are already among the lowest paid in OECD countries,” declared CGT number one Sophie Binet on BFMTV/RMC. She called on the government to “change this draft budget which is dangerous for the country and which sends us hurtling into the wall of recession at 200 km/h”.
Since 2017, public employees have only seen their index point increased in 2022 (3.5%) and 2023 (1.5%), i.e. a total increase of slightly more than 5%. In the meantime, according to INSEE, cumulative inflation since 2017 will have reached 24.17% at the end of 2026. On the agenda: the “purchasing power” of civil servants, eroded by inflation and the absence of revaluation of the index point in recent years.
The CGT has promised a “black day” in the civil service, and the authorities expect to see between 20,000 and 40,000 people, excluding firefighters.
Questioned by Le Figaro near the Claude Monet high school, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, where a blockade has been organized since Tuesday morning, the Parisian MP and member of the Ecologists party considered that it was “important that high school students mobilize because National Education is one of the administrations targeted by Macronist policies”.
And to continue: “A priori, this year the budget will be maintained for National Education. But we could imagine that this would be one of the priorities of the future. With this budget, it is clear that this is not the case.” Sandrine Rousseau takes up the results of the PISA survey published at the beginning of September. “If we have catastrophic PISA results, it is not a coincidence. It’s because public policies in education are declining.”
Questioned this Tuesday morning on France Inter about the role of his political party in the high school blockades, Manuel Bompard defended LFI's support for the movement. “I want to salute the mobilization of high school students. I think it’s quite wonderful and quite exemplary to see young people [...] who are fighting and who are simply mobilizing to demand dignified educational conditions,” declared the LFI coordinator.
“I think we should all welcome this high school mobilization,” he continued. And to assume the support of his movement: “When we share the demands of a mobilization, it is normal that we support it, that we support it and that we call for it to be amplified.”
Deeming TotalEnergies' strategy “shameful”, the general secretary of the CGT proposes “to impose on the oil and gas giant and other oil majors to sell fuel cheaper to distributors”.
“I heard Serge Papin say on your microphone: “I don’t want to bother Total”, but who does he work for? Is her job to be at the service of Total so as not to annoy it or to be at the service of the general interest and the 40 million workers who can no longer even go to work?" she asked again on BFMTV/RMC.
Sophie Binet is therefore calling for a “blocking of prices and margins” for everyone. In short, “impose a selling price of tankers on distributors” so that they do not benefit further from the current crisis. Because, according to her, there is “a risk of dumping”, while Total could “take advantage of the suffocation of bankrupt service stations” to buy them and “thus expand their monopoly”.
The general secretary of the CGT, for her part, called on the government this Tuesday morning “to hear the anger of high school students” and “to stop sending police officers” as soon as a high school mobilization is organized.
“What they ask for is very simple: tables, chairs and teachers, and we respond by sending them the police. It’s dangerous, we must let the educational teams do their work and let the high school students exercise their rights as citizens,” she spoke on BFMTV/RMC.
“When we send the police, we organize the excesses,” continued the trade unionist, believing that it was above all “the Ministry of National Education to manage the high school mobilizations, and not the Ministry of the Interior”. Before launching: “We must stop immediately (sending police officers) and respond in substance to their legitimate demands.”
Guest of RMC this Tuesday morning, the president of the Île-de-France region Valérie Pécresse called for “appeasement” after the blockages of several establishments on Monday. She mentioned “around forty high schools blocked”, “twenty injured” and fifteen establishments vandalized, for an amount of repairs already estimated at “200,000 euros”.
“All of this is political exploitation,” she accused, directly calling into question La France insoumise. According to her, a slogan “Trash your high school” is circulating on social networks, accompanied by TikTok challenges around the blockages. “Today, the LFI is the arsonist firefighters,” she said.
Hundreds of students gathered this Tuesday morning in front of the establishment in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. A young man gave a speech, standing on top of the trash cans. Middle school students “are allowed to return,” specifies the high school student.
By his presence this Tuesday morning, Julien (first name changed), final year student at Claude Monet high school, supports “the civil service movement” and “the blockade of high schools.” “I am against the extremely violent repression that has taken place in suburban high schools since the beginning of the week.”
High school students plan to take part in the September 29 civil service strike, in their own way. For a week, in Paris and more generally in Île-de-France, several establishments have been blocked by students. The reason? The overcrowding of classes and timetables, which they consider too dense.
After a summer marked by historic fires during which firefighters were severely tested, firefighters decided to gather in the capital to join the rest of the civil servants.
Expected to number between 5,000 and 10,000 by the authorities, they will initially march in their own procession, between Place d'Italie and the Bastille, before joining the rest of the demonstrators, who will leave from Place de la République, then head to Place de la Nation.
A day of national strike. Public sector agents, first and foremost firefighters, are demonstrating this Tuesday across France at the call of a broad inter-union movement, with the ambition of putting pressure on the government, two days before the presentation of the draft budget for 2027.
Scalded by a new freezing of the index point announced at the beginning of September by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, the CGT, FO, CFDT, UNSA, FSU, Solidaires, CFE-CGC and FA-FP are organizing more than 170 demonstrations across the country to demand an increase in the salaries of civil servants and “budgetary means commensurate” with the missions of public services.
“The first budget announcements for 2027 pose the threat of new constraints on public services as well as on the remuneration and working conditions of their agents,” lamented the inter-union in a joint press release published at the beginning of September.
The unions are thus demanding “general salary measures, in particular a significant revaluation of the value of the index point and its indexation to inflation”, but also “budgetary resources commensurate with the needs and missions of public services”.
The social movement is supported by the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, who called for “a black day” against a “regressive” budget project, and by her CFDT counterpart, Marylise Léon. The latter called on Monday the government to “increase civil servants”, who are “fed up with civil servant bashing”.
Schools, transport, hospitals… The effects of the strike will be felt in several sectors. On the National Education side, in primary education, the FSU-SNUipp, the leading union of primary school teachers, expects 40% of strikers.
In transport, the strike should have little impact. On the SNCF side, “SNCF Voyageurs train traffic will be normal on Tuesday September 29 on the TGV and Intercités connections” and “almost normal on the TER”, according to SNCF Voyageurs. In Île-de-France, some disruptions are expected on the RER C and E (3 trains out of 4), on the RER D (between 1 train out of 2 and 1 train out of 3 depending on the branches), as well as on lines R (1 train out of 3, only during peak hours) and V (2 trains out of 3) of the Transilien.
In hospitals, the CGT Santé Social Action has filed a strike notice. The CFDT Santé-Sociaux has joined the movement. The France Travail unions are also calling on their agents to stop work. Already mobilized for several weeks, the firefighters plan to demonstrate this Tuesday. On its website, the CGT lists more than 150 processions planned in 90 departments.
