The leader of the CFDT Laurent Berger evacuates this Saturday any possibility of “deal” between the executive and his union if the government maintains the very probable postponement of the legal retirement age on the occasion of its future reform
A few days before the official presentation of the pension reform by Élisabeth Borne on January 10, the leader of the CFDT Laurent Berger expressed his strong opposition to the postponement of the legal retirement age, he said this Saturday at Parisian.
“There will be no deal”
“It must be clear, even with positive measures on long careers or hardship, we remain opposed to the reform with an age measure. There will be no deal with the CFDT”, affirms the secretary general of the CFDT, the first French trade union.
Three days before the presentation of an explosive pension reform scheduled for Tuesday, the unions are increasing the pressure against the government which plans to implement a probable postponement of the retirement age to 64, with accompanying measures on the employment of seniors or hardship.
“If Élisabeth Borne continues to think that the right reform is the postponement of the legal age, we will do everything to make the government back down. And we will use all the levers that are ours!”, warned the N. 1 of the CFDT who will meet his counterparts on Tuesday evening to consider a joint response to the government project.
“The CFDT is ready to call on employees to mobilize. In different forms: demonstrations, initiatives in the professional sectors, calls for walkouts…”, he underlined.
“The French did not give a discharge”
Laurent Berger goes so far as to warn Elisabeth Borne: “Attention, Madam Prime Minister, today there is a lot of social tension, a lot of social difficulties, anxieties, conflictuality, a lot of negative feelings in the population. .”
It is also false against the argument of the executive ensuring that the pension reform would draw its legitimacy from the re-election of Emmanuel Macron in 2022 of which it appeared in the program.
“The French did not discharge pensions at the time of the presidential election, we must stop telling stories,” he said.
“If we struggled so much between the two rounds of the presidential election, it was to avoid the election of Marine Le Pen, it was obviously not because we wanted to turn 65,” said he continued.
He also asks the political movements to let the unions lead the social movement that is looming while the left-wing parties united under the banner of Nupes are planning a joint meeting from January 17 in Paris.
“I believe that the left parties would be inspired to let us manage the social mobilization. It is up to the trade unions to set the tone and kick off the mobilization”, asked Laurent Berger.
