Is social dialogue in trouble? “The more it drags, the worse it smells,” former Force Ouvrière general secretary Jean-Claude Mailly said when asked about RTL on the current mobilization against the pension reform.
For the former union leader, the situation is much more complicated today than it was in 1995, during the social movement against the Juppé plan. “Was not [une mobilisation] against Jacques Chirac”, he assured, recalling that the presidential term continued to be the rule. The President of the Republic focused on international and sovereign issues and let his Prime Minister “go to the fire”. It is Emmanuel Macron who “takes the initiative” but “takes a step back” as soon as the situation gets complicated, he said.
“There is no longer a rappel rope”
In 1995, “it was Jacques Chirac who blew the whistle for the end of the recess”, explained Jean-Claude Mailly, evoking the role of Bernard Pons, Minister of Transport and close to Jacques Chirac, who had pleaded “to stop the nonsense”. Today, with the President of the Republic at the initiative, “there is no longer a reminder rope, because there is no one above the President”, estimated the former Secretary General of Force Ouvrière.
A social dialogue that is all the more complicated since Emmanuel Macron “does not have a culture of social dialogue”, he assured. In 2017, during the discussions around “Macron’s orders”, Emmanuel Macron had “not badly transferred the then Minister of Labor” Muriel Pénicaud, “who had a very large habit of social negotiation”. For Jean-Claude Mailly, Emmanuel Macron “works a lot with his secretary general and less with the others.”
Source: BFM TV
