A strategy that does not go through the union ranks. After the end of the examination of the pension reform bill this Friday night in the National Assembly in a chaotic atmosphere, the centrals openly regret the position of La France insoumise.
“What has been done in the National Assembly and the fact of not going to article 7 and that everyone can exhibit their positions, is a problem,” said Philippe Martínez, the number one of the CGT this Sunday on BFMTV.
“It is not an ally of the social movement”
The movement upheld thousands of amendments last week, preventing lawmakers from considering Article 7, which raises the retirement age.
If their socialist, communist and environmental allies withdrew their amendments at the end of the week to speed up the debates – Mathilde Panot’s group has opted for the opposite strategy by keeping them.
“We had to put the deputies, each deputy, before their responsibilities (…). When Jean-Luc Mélenchon does things like that, he is not an ally of the social movement,” the CGT general secretary also scolded on Sunday. .
“What happens in Parliament stays in Parliament”
Between the lines, these are two strategies that have clashed in recent days: on the one hand, the one chosen by LFI which consisted of slowing down the debates, regretting that the government had chosen a short time for the debate. The deputies thus worked only 73 hours in total, very far, for example, from the 2003 reform with 173 hours in the chamber.
On the other, the one defended by the unions that expected the vote on article 7 to be rejected, allowing the left to argue in favor of voting against it and pushing the Executive to back down.
Laurent Berger was not more tender than Laurent Martínez either, when he denounced on his Twitter account “a distressing spectacle” in the National Assembly, “in contempt of the workers.” With one fear: that certain scenes in the chamber could harm the mobilizations that have gone weeks without confrontations. But some, in the ranks of the CGT, some lament mezza voce the criticism of their central.
“It is not our issue whether we can debate the text or not in the chamber. What we want is the withdrawal of the law. What happens in Parliament belongs to Parliament”, judges Christophe Aubert, coordinator of the CGT of Exxon-Mobil. with BFMTV. .com
“We can say that the executive failed to convince the deputies”
In more general terms, some point out that if the deputies had adopted the reduction of the retirement age to 64 years, the government could have boasted of a political victory.
“We may not like the LFI method in the hemicycle, but it has the advantage that the government cannot tell us ‘look at the text, it is voted on’, therefore legitimized. On the contrary, there we can say that the executive did not manage to convince the deputies”, also deciphers a trade unionist from the CFTC.
“Politicians are always trying to win back the union movement”
More broadly, the criticism of the unions comes after months of tension with the central unions, since the march against the high cost of living organized by LFI last fall and which had shaken the CGT, on the first date of mobilization against the pension reform. which was not the same in the political and union fields.
“You have to understand that politicians are always trying to recover the trade union movement and that, inevitably, stresses the union representatives”, advances Bernard Vivier, director of the labor institute and a good connoisseur of the social partners.
It must be said that in the face of the massive opposition of the French to the pension reform, the unions hope to score points in the long term, just like the left. With some success so far for the centrals: since January, a record number of French people have decided to join a union.
The finding is less happy for the left. According to an Ifop survey of Sunday newspaper, 25% of the French consider that RN, extremely discreet during the debates on pensions, “better embodies the opposition to the reform”, compared to 23% of Nupes.
“Helping the social movement is preventing the government”
On the side of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, we now want to turn the page, with the course set in the mobilization on the street of March 7.
“Let’s forget these divisive comments,” the former presidential candidate tweeted on Sunday, calling for “widening the front of engagement and not stunting it.”
“From our point of view, helping the social movement is preventing the government from hastily approving the pension reform in 10 days. We did that,” Manuel Bompard, coordinator of LFI, wrote on the social network.
Give hope to reform opponents, trade unionists and elected officials: almost 6 out of 10 French people are in favor of “paralyzing France” on March 7, according to an Elabe poll for BFMTV.
Source: BFM TV
