The CFDT will not rally to the government’s cause on pension reform. Laurent Berger wanted to be clear and firm: “If there is a postponement of the legal retirement age to 64 or 65, the CFDT will mobilize to contest this reform”, affirmed the secretary general of the union after the meeting between Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and the social partners. A message supported by François Hommeril, president of the CFE-CGC. He said he was ready to counter “an extremely unfair measure (…) of shift” in the starting age.
The meeting between Elisabeth Borne and Laurent Berger was one of the most anticipated. But unsurprisingly, the latter showed no openness with the executive’s project. “The CFDT has hammered its opposition to the decline in the legal retirement age, but also hammered a stronger obligation of employers on the arduousness or long careers or even on the contributory minimum. We can’t say that we had a lot of clarifications, ”lamented Laurent Berger. Do not talk to him about progress when we talk about leaving at 64 rather than 65. It’s niet, and again niet. “We are opposed to any extension of the starting age. I no longer know how to say it or in what tone to say it, ”he gets annoyed.
The LRs or the 49.3
The horizon of the strong man of the first central trade union in France is now all turned towards the mobilization to come. His hope is to succeed in making the government back down and get into battle order as soon as the reform is officially unveiled. He does not hide it and calls for a joint mobilization between all the unions to make the government bend. This would be a first for 12 years and the Woerth reform.
Laurent Berger wants to believe it, especially after seeing Elisabeth Borne back down this morning on unemployment insurance, and the reduction in the duration of compensation by 40% if the unemployment rate were to fall below the 6% threshold. “It’s the illustration that they were tinkering with, that it was very hard for job seekers. This is the illustration that we can push them back. We will continue to fight against this measure if it were to reappear later, he promises.
Failing to convince the CFDT, Elisabeth Borne still hopes to rally to her Les Républicains, favorable to a postponement of the age. To this end, it must exchange by telephone with their president Eric Ciotti, as well as with the heads of groups in the Assembly Olivier Marleix and in the Senate Bruno Retailleau. Without LR, the government, which only has a relative majority, would be forced to use Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the adoption of a text without a vote.