the ultimate fight of Berger and Martinez

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The leaders of the CFDT and the CGT deliver their last trade-union fight of scale. They’re going to hand over. The challenge ? The trace they will leave in history.

Par Marie Bordet

The secretary general of the CFDT Laurent Berger and the secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez at the head of the demonstration against the pension reform, in Paris, on January 19, 2023.
© Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via AFP

Published on 01/30/2023 at 4:00 p.m.

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L’year 2023 begins under the sign of love. Laurent Berger, general secretary of the CFDT, France’s leading trade union, and his rival Philippe Martinez, general secretary of the CGT, France’s second largest trade union, have never been apart. We saw them together and with the same wrathful gaze at the Bourse du commerce, this famous January 10, a few moments after the presentation of the pension reform by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, to initiate the union fight.

We saw them together beating the streets of Paris on January 19, behind the same banner. We saw them together, on January 25, braving the cold to solemnly display, before the National Assembly, their common determination to continue the fight. The two union leaders, once so suspicious of the union…