There will be a size missing in the photo. While a tenth national day of action against pension reform is scheduled for Tuesday, March 28, Philippe Martinez will not parade alongside his counterparts in Paris. The secretary general of the CGT is detained in Clermont-Ferrand by the 53e congress of his organization, which was to kick off on Monday. A page turns for the steelworker, who has decided to leave the command post after having occupied it for eight years. It is also a high-risk period for the second-largest union in France, which is plagued by internal quarrels, which crystallize over the designation of the personality called to become number one. Mr. Martinez should – unless there is a twist – be replaced by a woman, but uncertainty prevails as to the name of his successor.
Until Friday March 31, a thousand delegates are gathered in the capital of Puy-de-Dôme, in order to define the line of the CGT for the next three years and to elect the management team who will defend it. A crucial moment in the life of the confederation, faced with an erosion of its influence. It claimed nearly 606,000 members in 2020, or 33,000 fewer cards in two years. In the professional elections, it fell back, losing its first place at the end of 2018, in favor of the CFDT. A demotion synonymous with shock for the “CGT house”, accustomed for decades to being at the forefront of tricolor unionism.
It is therefore a weakened union which is holding its conclave, in Clermont-Ferrand – even if it has found some colors, in recent months, by scrapping against retirement at 64. Not only is the CGT on the back foot, but its fragility is accentuated by a succession battle.
At the origin of these torments, there is the decision taken in the spring of 2022 by Mr. Martinez to place Marie Buisson in orbit so that she can take up the position of secretary general when he hands over. Approved by the executive authorities of the confederation, this choice is part of the extension of the orientations followed for several years. The CGT wanted to open up to new themes, linked, in particular, to the ecological transition, by creating the group Never again that with defenders of the environment (Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, etc.). An operation in which Mme Buisson played a key role.
“Made of princes”
But the fact that this 54-year-old teacher has been dubbed goes badly in part of the organization. For reasons of form, first of all: many see it as an act of the prince, a gesture of authoritarianism, when more collegiality would have been needed. The pedigree of the dauphine also arouses reluctance. Enjoying, until very recently, little notoriety, including among his comrades, Mme Buisson has, moreover, the handicap of leading a small structure – the Federation of Education, Research and Culture – than other components of the confederation, much more powerful and established in the strongholds of the CGT. , look down.
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