A striker does not go on strike without hurting his wallet. A day not worked is a day not paid for by your employer. But to support their members, unions have some resources.
All the more so since the strikes that begin on Tuesday, March 7 are called to be renewable in various sectors and that, for several months, inflation has weighed on the French budget. In order to avoid its demobilization, it is necessary to try to limit the addition. How do unions pay part of their membership bill?
Well-filled strike chests?
The help offered by the unions is not new, it is even a principle “almost as old as the strike itself”, emphasizes Stéphane Sirot.
If the unions can sell sweets to finance their actions, their main resource remains their strike funds. In the CFDT, it is called the Caisse Nationale d’Action Syndicale. Permanent and fed by the contributions of the partners, it has more than 140 million euros of reserves.
Accumulated over several decades, the idea is not to empty them completely to finance the movement against reform. For 2023, the CFDT’s budget is “one million euros,” explains Jean-Michel Rousseau, head of the fund that also manages legal actions.
If Force Ouvrière also has a permanent fund, the Solidaires union has opted for the decentralization of its aid funds while the CGT set up pots.
“The CGT has created a solidarity fund with the strikers mobilized to achieve a more just and supportive pension reform,” explains the central defender about Leetchi. His “CGT Solidaria Mobilization Fund” has already raised more than 600,000 euros.
In another of their kittens created in 2016, co-managed with SUD-Postes 92 and dubbed the “Solidarity Fund”, they have so far raised some 550,000 euros in donations. An amount never reached during previous movements, says Romain Altmann, who coordinates the fund for Info’Com CGT.
Help needed, supervised distribution
“It allows some to embark on the battle”, continues the general secretary of FO.
“We want to put the odds on our side,” adds a CFDT leader still at Le Parisien. To make sure no one stops mobilizing for financial reasons. With inflation, the question of losing money due to the strike is spotlight”.
The CFDT fund allows strikers to receive approximately 7.70 euros per hour not worked, while the FO fund grants them up to 30 euros of compensation per day upon receipt of pay slips proving that the strike days have been deducted from their wages. your income.
These aids, if they are welcome, do not compensate for a day’s salary. The net minimum salary is 8.92 euros.
For every day of strike, a private sector employee loses more than 80 euros, 82 euros for a worker and potentially much more for a manager, according to INSEE.
Source: BFM TV
