The four major trade unions representing the workers of SNCF, France's national state-owned rail company, have called for a "day of expression of railway anger" next Thursday in protest against French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
The unions claim that the demonstration will represent a "preparatory step" for larger-scale protests on 1 May, which were announced by France's major trade unions almost immediately after Macron signed his unpopular reforms into law on Saturday morning.
"The [passage] of the law does not change our fight at all. We will not move on until this law is abandoned," read a joint statement published on Saturday by the CGT-Cheminots, Unsa-Ferroviaire, SUD-Rail and CFDT-Cheminots unions.
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"[We] propose, as a preparatory step, to make 20 April a day of expression of railway anger," the statement added.
In addition to denouncing the "brutality of the reform", the unions claimed that "the social violence, orchestrated by the government and the president of the rich, commits us to remain mobilised".
