Paris, France – Earlier today, mayhem broke out outside the Paris office of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. Demonstrators forced their way into the BlackRock office building in Paris on Thursday, taking their protest against the government’s pension reforms to the largest money manager in the world.
BlackRock’s Paris office under siege
According to a video captured on April 6 by French journalist Clement Lanot, dozens of trade unionists protesting the pension reform proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron briefly broke into BlackRock’s old Centorial building in the Grand Boulevards district of Paris, shouting slogans and setting off fireworks.
About 100 individuals, including representatives of several labor unions, chanted anti-reform slogans for approximately 10 minutes on the building’s ground floor. The office of BlackRock is located on the third floor.
The meaning of this action is quite simple. We went to the headquarters of BlackRock to tell them: the money of workers, for our pensions, they are taking it.
Jerome Schmitt, spokesman for French union SUD
Protests against the French government’s plan to raise the retirement age for most workers from 62 to 64 are now on their 11th day. Last month, the government used special constitutional powers to force contentious legislation through parliament without a vote.
People will have to work longer starting in 2027 to receive full state pension benefits under the new rules.
France’s retirement situation
In many European countries, retirees rely on private pension funds to cover at least some of their living expenses in old age. In France, however, retiree pensions are entirely funded by contributions from the working population.
As per the reports at hand, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has taken no part in the pension reforms. However, workers targeted the company because of its work for private pension funds, according to Reuter’s protester Françoise Onic, a school teacher.
The government has stated that the pension legislation is necessary to avoid a looming funding deficit, but the reforms have enraged workers at a time when living costs are rising. Last month, French inflation fell from a record high in February, thanks to a sharp slowdown in energy price increases, but food price inflation increased.
Representatives of the CGT, France’s largest union confederation and a key player in the protests, have accused capitalism of being the root of many problems.
Since the beginning of the year, rolling strike action in the country has caused significant disruption to transportation services, schools, and businesses. During the March 23 protests, at least 80 people were arrested and 123 police officers were injured, with demonstrators setting fires, launching smoke bombs, and damaging property.
On Thursday, 11,500 law enforcement officers will be deployed throughout France, according to the French Ministry of the Interior.
The country’s new retirement age will continue to be lower than the norm in Europe and many other developed nations, where the age at which full pension benefits are applicable is 65 and is inching closer to 67.
In France, state pensions are also more generous than elsewhere. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, at nearly 14% of GDP in 2018, the United States spends more on state pensions than most other countries.
