Will the government be able to put some trust in so-called reforming unions like the CFDT for its next strategic bills like the “Labor Law”? Nothing less certain, since relations between the executive branch and the centrals have deteriorated today.
Of course, the unions have expressed since the beginning of the announcement of the pension reform their opposition to the project to raise the legal age of departure to 64 years.
But the latest statements by Emmanuel Macron during his television interview on Wednesday set the powder on fire. He first said that he regretted “that no union force has proposed a compromise.”
full attack
A large-scale attack that greatly irritated organizations like FO. “FO, contrary to any lowering of the retirement age and extension of the contribution period, has periodically presented and transmitted its proposals regarding labor management and end of career”, can be read in a press release.
But the “last straw” came from the frontal attack against the CFDT. In fact, the Head of State has made an entry to Laurent Berger, declaring that “the general secretary of the CFDT, whom (he) has esteem and respect, had gone before his congress by proposing to increase the duration (of contributions, Editor’s Note) It was not followed (…) but I had this desire to make people work more.”
Just a few minutes later, Laurent Berger replied: “Denial and lies! The CFDT has a pension reform project. Macron 2019 had understood it, had assumed our ambition for a universal system. Macron 2023 is making history again and lies in @ cfdt to hide their inability to find a majority to vote for their unjust reform,” he tweeted.
When the Élysée laments the lack of compromise proposed by the unions, the latter criticize the lack of listening (even radio silence) and consultation of the government, and the absence of a meeting with Emmanuel Macron, the latter dismissing the unions in Olivier Dusspot .
“Discreet contacts” challenged by the CFDT
The Minister of Labor precisely, this Thursday on RTL questions this breakdown in dialogue and claims to have “informal and discreet contacts” with the unions. “It helps to better understand the positions of others,” he added.
Echoing the words of the President of the Republic, who is consulting on the upcoming reforms, Olivier Dussopt hopes that this dialogue will take place “little by little” and “at the initiative of the Government”.
Problem, five of the eight union leaders interviewed by RTL say the opposite and claim to have had no contact with Olivier Dussopt or his teams.
“I have not seen the Minister of Labour, nor the President of the Republic, nor the Prime Minister since the start of the pension dispute at the beginning of January,” Laurent Berger confirms on BFMTV on Thursday.
consummated divorce
“There were exchanges” by phone with Olivier Dussopt, telling him “that at some point we will have to see each other,” Laurent Berger specifies, but “there is no discussion.”
The divorce seems, therefore, well consummated between the government and the CFDT in particular, whose “reformist” position has been able to help the government several times in certain bills such as the value distribution.
From now on, we will have to do without. On BFMTV, Laurent Berger calls for a “period of decency” before resuming discussions. “I will not rush next week to argue with Mr. Dussopt whom I have not seen since the beginning of January.”
And hit, “it’s stupid because then he says that the dialogue will have to be resumed. I have never renewed the dialogue by starting to slap someone.”
Impasse for the next Labor Law?
Same tone without surprise from other centrals like the CGT. “We will not go like this to sit around a table with people who make fun of us,” Marie Buisson, a candidate for the succession of Philippe Martinez at the head of the union, launches in France Info.
Therefore, we must expect a more than tense environment for the next great government dossier, the Labor and Full Employment Law. It could confirm the breakdown of the dialogue between the executive and the intermediate bodies and lead directly to a new political impasse.
For Antoine Foucher, president of the Quintet conseil, former chief of staff of the Minister of Labor, Muriel Pénicaud interviewed by BFM Business, it will take “time” to resume the dialogue.
But the main issue will be how the government “regains control when we are still not out of the pension crisis.”
Among the possible options for the debates to follow, “the referendum on three or four very important issues for the country and no social movement would have the possibility of opposing a bill validated in a referendum,” estimates the former dircab.
Give social partners more control over future files
Or give more control to the social partners over the reforms to come to sign agreements, an idea defended by Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, president of Medef.
A false good idea for Antoine Foucher. “He proposes this based on the value sharing agreement (signed between the employers and the unions, editor’s note) which is a good agreement”, but otherwise, “they would not agree with each other, I don’t have internal expertise to discuss these issues”.
However, this method was applied by François Hollande between 2012 and 2017, but today, “he (Emmanuel Macron) can try again, but we do not see on what issues he could entrust them with a form of delegation of legislation. And after the agreement, they will it must be transcribed in Parliament because this type of text has no legal value”, he explains.
Source: BFM TV
