(WASHINGTON) — With strikes raging throughout France in response to a push to raise the nation’s retirement age, government officials across the Atlantic Ocean may want to take steps to avoid similar chaos in the event that Social Security becomes insolvent.

Last-ditch talks between Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and leaders of France’s largest trade unions faltered on Wednesday. Union representatives emerged after less than an hour deeming the meeting a “failure” and calling on the public to join Thursday’s strike.

Millions have taken to the streets in recent months in opposition to the pension reform, with protests at times shutting down schools, public transit and iconic cultural attractions like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Mounds of garbage piled up on the sidewalks and were set ablaze. Violent clashes have been documented between demonstrators and police.

Frédéric Souillot, the secretary general of the Force Ouvrière trade union, warned Wednesday they were “more determined than ever” ahead of the new wave of protests.

But France is not the only nation grappling with a financial dilemma. The United States will soon have to address the holes threatening to sink its own retirement system.

Social Security, the popular program on which 67 million Americans rely for monthly payments, faces long-term solvency issues that could result in benefit reductions within the next decade. U.S. lawmakers will soon have to act on Social Security, despite its status as the “third rail” in American politics — as in “touch it at your own peril.”

The trust fund that pays retirees is estimated to run dry by 2033, a year earlier than previously predicted, according to a report released last week from its board of trustees. If no solution is reached by then, the program would only be able to pay out 77% of scheduled benefits.

“We face the same demographic challenges here that France is facing,” Richard Johnson, the director of the Urban Institute’s Program on Retirement Policy, told ABC News. “There will be more retirees per worker in the future than we have today. That’s the challenge.”

What can America learn from France’s upheaval? Here are steps experts say U.S. officials can take in an effort to avoid the same fate.

Negotiate with the labor movement

France’s retirement age hike incensed the nation’s labor movement, which argued the measure unfairly burdened blue-collar workers in physically demanding jobs. The move is opposed by younger and older citizens alike.

French President Emmanuel Macron argued the new law — which raises the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 — was necessary for the survival of the country’s pension system. He pushed the deeply unpopular measure forward by shunning Parliament and invoking a special constitutional power.

Jean Garrigues, a leading French historian, said Macron made two “bad mistakes” during the ordeal: not negotiating with the labor movement and using what many see as an undemocratic tool to get the measure adopted.

“A lot of people accuse Emmanuel Macron of being responsible for all this violence,” Garrigues told ABC News.

Strive for fairness in readjusting the system

Both France and the U.S. have pay-as-you go systems that are strained by the collapsing ratio of working people to retirees. President Joe Biden and Republicans have clashed several times over how to address the disparate numbers of people in different generations.

Some Republicans have floated raising the full retirement age to 70 and making benefit changes to high-earning Americans to bring the system into balance. Democrats have generally proposed expanding benefits and raising taxes on the wealthy.

Rich Fiesta, the executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said he would “urge caution” to lawmakers who want to raise the full retirement age in the U.S. beyond 67.

“That’s the one thing that is universally not well regarded by the American public,” he said.

Macron’s critics have argued the funding for pensions could’ve come from another source, such as tax increases, without forcing people to retire later.

“Part of the protests in France is this idea of how we should be distributing the pain of adjusting the retirement system,” Johnson said.

That idea will likely be a key point of debate as the U.S. continues to debate Social Security.

“When we look at the solution that the French have come up with, which is increasing the retirement age, there are some questions about the fairness of doing that,” Johnson said. He noted those in physically demanding jobs may not be able to work longer and older people who lose their jobs may have trouble getting reemployed.

“Is that the most fair kind of change that we should make to Social Security? Should we ask wealthier people to pay more into the system? That’s something that the French haven’t done, and we’re seeing street protests.”

Make changes gradually

The last time the U.S. increased the retirement age for Social Security was in 1983, but the change happened gradually over several decades.

By contrast, France’s new retirement age will be fully implemented by 2030 — just seven years away.

“You want to give people time to adjust,” Johnson said. “It’s important to start thinking about change long before the system is in crisis. What we’re seeing in France is the importance of planning ahead, so we don’t have to make quick changes.”

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(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — The Republican-led Tennessee House of Representatives scheduled a vote to expel three Democratic members on Thursday over their involvement in a gun control protest last week following the Nashville school shooting.

Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson have said they have no regrets about speaking out against gun violence and calling on their colleagues to do more to enact laws that crack down on gun access.

Pearson told ABC News’ “Start Here,” before the vote that he and his colleagues were never allowed to speak out on behalf of their constituents, many of whom are demanding common sense gun reform, and dismissed the GOP member’s arguments that they violated the chamber’s rules of decorum.

“The people elected us, not our colleagues,” he told “Start Here.” “That is not the status quo. None of us expected that we had broken a rule that could lead to our expulsion.”

Each elected official has had deep ties to the state’s politics and has been vocal about their support for gun control.

Gloria Johnson

Johnson, 60, was born in Colorado and moved several times during her youth for her father’s work with the FBI until she was in seventh grade when her family, which had long Tennessee roots, settled in Knoxville, according to her official campaign bio.

She graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with an education degree and taught elementary and high school classes for several years. In addition to teaching, Johnson was active in local politics, helping with some field campaigns for Democratic elected officials, her bio said.

She was Knox County Democratic Party chairwoman in 2009. Three years later, Johnson was first elected to the Tennessee House representing the 13th district, which covered Knoxville.

She was defeated in the 2014 election by Republican Eddie Smith but in 2018 she regained her seat in a rematch with Smith.

Johnson, who is a gun owner, has made gun safety a top priority.

“As someone who worked in a classroom where we lost one of our students, you never forget the faces, the people, the children, and the traumatic experience. And we do not want that to happen to another child and another school,” she told ABC News.

Justin Jones

Jones, 27, was born in Oakland, California, and said he has been active in political movements since he was a teenager.

In high school, he organized rallies to speak out against “stand your ground laws” following Trayvon Martin’s death, according to his campaign bio.

He began attending Fisk University in Tennessee in 2013 and continued to take part in political activism, including a 62-day sit-in outside the Tennessee State House in protest of the controversial Dakota Pipeline construction at Standing Rock.

After graduating from the university with a degree in political science, Jones continued to work with local community activist groups, including the Tennessee Healthcare Campaign, a non-profit that advocates for affordable healthcare for all state residents.

Jones ran for office last year for the open house seat for Tennessee’s 52nd district, which includes Nashville. He had no opponents in the general election.

Jones has kept gun control at the forefront of his agenda and has repeatedly called out his Republican colleagues on their bills to loosen the state’s firearm restrictions.

“There comes a time when you have to do something out of the ordinary. We occupied the House floor today after repeatedly being silenced from talking about the crisis of mass shootings,” he tweeted before the March 30 protest.

Justin Pearson

Pearson, 27, was born and raised in Memphis and graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine with a degree in government & legal studies and education studies, according to his campaign bio.

Pearson was part of several community organizing groups, including Memphis Community Against Pollution and the Poor People’s Campaign: National Call for Moral Revival, his bio said.

After years of political work in the non-profit sector, Pearson officially became an elected member of the Tennessee House this year in a special election to replace Barbara Cooper, the 86th district’s representative who died in October 2022.

Pearson told “Start Here” he recently lost a classmate to gun violence. He noted that murders in his district are up 44% this year compared to last year.

“I think about responsibility as an elected official and the care and compassion that we should just have as people, those are together,” Pearson said.

Pearson said he and his fellow Democratic colleagues are speaking with attorneys about their next move but vowed to continue speaking out.

“Our work is not ending today. Our work is continuing,” he said.

ABC News’ Brad Mielke and Amanda Su contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied West Virginia’s request to immediately reinstate a law that would ban transgender student-athletes from participating in sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

The decision is a win for a 12-year-old transgender girl and her parents who are challenging the law in a bid to allow her to continue running on her middle school cross-country and track teams.

It is also a victory for transgender rights advocates at a time when many states nationwide are enacting similar sports bans, even if the continued injunction is only temporary as legal challenges play out.

The court did not explain its decision, though two justices — Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — issued a dissent.

“Among other things, enforcement of the law at issue should not be forbidden by the federal courts without any explanation,” Alito writes.

The high court was not considering the ban on the merits but rather addressing the question of whether it should remain on hold while legal proceedings continue in lower courts.

West Virginia, defending the law in court documents, has claimed that “there is ‘a substantial risk that boys would dominate the girls’ programs and deny them an equal opportunity to compete in interscholastic events.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is challenging West Virginia’s trans sports ban on behalf of the girl, Becky Pepper Jackson, applauded the decision.

“We are grateful that the Supreme Court today acknowledged that there was no emergency and that Becky should be allowed to continue to participate with her teammates on her middle school track team, which she has been doing without incident for three going on four seasons, as our challenge to West Virginia’s onerous trans youth sports ban makes its way through the courts,” the ACLU said in a statement. “This was a baseless and cruel effort to keep Becky from where she belongs – playing alongside her peers as a teammate and as a friend.”

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