A short tour and then come back, tirelessly, “until withdrawal”. In the aftermath of the expected failure of the inter-union meeting with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, opponents of the pension reform will find themselves in the streets again this Thursday, April 6.
After more than two months of mobilization, this 11th day should not be that of all records: the FSU plans “around 20%” of strikers in primary schools, while at the SNCF, traffic will be less disrupted than during previous strike days. But while the government clings to the masts while waiting for the storm to pass, the intersyndicale, which sees a “democratic crisis”intends to once again demonstrate the unpopularity of this reform ” brutal “adopted without a vote in the National Assembly and which put several hundred thousand people in the streets each week.
The sequel after the ad
A “radicalized” government, according to the CGT
On the eve of this new day of mobilization, the executive had mimed the dialogue, and Elisabeth Borne invited the inter-union to Matignon. A first since the announcement of the reform on January 10. None of the participants expected much from this meeting, as the script was written in advance: the Prime Minister had warned that she would agree to talk about everything, except pensions; the trade unionists had warned that they would not speak of anything, before having spoken of pensions.
A small hour will have sufficed to record the impossibility of dialogue, and for the inter-union to reappear on the steps, united and reassembled.
Inter-union: together, how far?
“We repeated to the Prime Minister that there can be no other democratic outcome than the withdrawal of the text. The Prime Minister replied that she wanted to maintain her text, a serious decision “declared the general secretary of the CFTC Cyril Chabanier on behalf of the intersyndicale, at the end of the meeting:
“We refuse to turn the page and open, as the government proposes, other sequences of consultation on issues as diverse as full employment or the sharing of wealth. »
Sophie Binet, new secretary general of the CGT, denounced a government “radicalized, obtuse and disconnected (…) in a parallel reality” : “We put an end to this useless meeting when the Prime Minister told us that she would continue to govern against the country. » For Laurent Berger, general secretary of the CFDT, “the social crisis is turning into a democratic crisis”. All called to join the processions of this April 6th.
The sequel after the ad
Laurent Berger: “At some point, Emmanuel Macron will have to meet the unions”
Shortly after, it was Elisabeth Borne – flanked by Olivier Dussopt (Minister of Labour) and Stanislas Guerini (Minister of Transformation and the Public Service), also present at the meeting – who went down to the courtyard of the Hôtel de Matignon to debrief this non-dialogue. “Even though our disagreements over age did not allow for in-depth discussions, I believe this meeting nevertheless marks an important milestone” she rejoiced, seeming not to have attended the same meeting as those who had just left her in the lurch.
Emmanuel Macron, grand absent
To someone who does not hear, should we just repeat the same thing in the same tone? Some, among activists and strikers, regret that the inter-union is content to call for these so-called mobilizations “leapfrog” without further organizing the strike between each day. “We can predict times of convergence for the whole world of work, but between, we must build the renewal of the action, of the strike, everywhere, in all possible forms”, told us a few days ago the cégétiste Olivier Mateu, secretary general of the Departmental Union of Bouches-du-Rhône, critical of the line of his former secretary general Philippe Martinez on this point. Having just arrived at the head of the confederation and surrounded by an office which includes among its members representatives of federations at the forefront of the renewable strike, such as energy, Sophie Binet could want to change this strategy. The leader of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon, calling for more « coordination » between unions and political parties on the fight against pension reform, also believed last Sunday that “People who (…) have dozens of days of strike in their boots (…) have the moral right to ask us to make an extra effort in the fight”.
Emmanuel Macron, absent from this social movement, currently traveling in China, was content to let it be known on Wednesday through his entourage that he intended to take « des contacts » with the intersyndicale after the decision of the Constitutional Council.
The Elders must decide on April 14 on the constitutionality of the bill, but also on the draft referendum of shared initiative on the reform. Even if the central provision of the retirement bill, the 64 years, were validated, this would not mark the end of the mobilization, assures the inter-union. She keeps in mind the example of the first job contract: in 2006, the bill that contained it had been validated by the Constitutional Council… and withdrawn one month after its adoption.
