French workers cherish their welfare state. That’s why they’re striking | Cole Stangler
It's shaping up to be one of France's biggest strikes in recent memory. Responding to calls from unions to protest against the government's proposed retirement reforms, an impressive swath of the workforce plans to walk off the job tomorrow - everyone from railway workers and truckers to judges, nurses, teachers and students.
While it has yet to introduce legislation, Emmanuel Macron's government has floated a proposal that would mark the deepest overhaul of France's pension system since its creation in the aftermath of the second world war. This would effectively hike the earliest age at which one can collect so-called full retirement benefits from 62 to 64, overhaul the formula for calculating benefits and merge the country's 42 existing pension schemes into a single regime - all in all, resulting in likely benefit cuts for millions. Authorities have defended their ambitions with the language of French republicanism, vowing to forge a "universal system" in which everyone is treated equally. But what they neglect to mention is that the new standard would be worse than today's.
Related: How Macron discovered the soft power of the working class | Christophe Guilluy
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