Force Ouvrière took second place, ahead of the CFDT, in the civil service professional elections held from 1is to December 8. Marked by a sharp drop in turnout (43.7%, compared to 49.8% in 2018), the election consecrates the CGT, which remains the first public union with 20.8% of the vote (– 1.1 point compared to to 2018), ahead of Force Ouvrière (18.7%, +0.6 point) and the CFDT (18.5%, –0.5 point). These “first results”published by the General Directorate of Administration and the Public Service, Thursday, December 15, were to be officially presented on Friday.
Double surprise, then. Prior to the consultation of public officials, most stakeholders were concerned about participation. The election of representatives of the 5.1 million voters registered in the 20,000 civil service social committees fell below the 50% turnout mark in 2018. But no one expected such a sharp drop: – 6 .1 points. The public, which shows an abstention of 66.3%, is therefore getting closer and closer to the private sector (62%).
A few days before the election, political scientist Luc Rouban, research director at the CNRS, recalled that, “Recently, the days of protest organized by the unions have been failures”. In fact, notes the researcher at the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po, “the traditional mode of action doesn’t work as well as it used to. Something seized up. People don’t believe it anymore.. The researcher also felt that trade union organizations were probably no longer considered “as effective in resolving problems of working conditions, because the law [sur la fonction publique] of 2019 has whittled down their powers”.
“Misinformation”
The second surprise concerns the CFDT. The federation, which had taken the title of first national union (private and public sectors combined) from the CGT in 2018, hoped, certainly cautiously, to impose its supremacy in the public service. But it was ultimately she who was overtaken by Force Ouvrière, which remains first in the state civil service (with strong progress in the Ministry of Justice, in particular) and has made strong progress in hospitals. The UNSA obtains 11.7% (+0.6 point), the FSU 9.2% (+0.6 point), Solidaires 5.7% (-0.7 point), the CFE-CGC (3. 9%, +0.5 point), then FA-FP (3.1%, –0.4 point).
In a press release published Thursday, December 15, the CFDT claims to want to launch, “from the next few days, an in-depth analysis to [nous] enable us to respond even better to the expectations of members and colleagues”. But it was after putting the election result into perspective, emphasizing “stability in the balance between major representative organisations” and by denouncing the preparation and conduct “particularly chaotic” elections. Mylène Jacquot, secretary general of the CFDT Public functions, deplores “many difficulties” in the organization: “Establishment of electoral lists, disregard of union alerts on technical risks, multiplication of voting platforms, single polling stations in certain communities far from the workplaces of agents…”without counting “lack of information”.
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