2023-05-17 18:01:38
The French Government has resumed this week in an incipient way the dialogue with the unions. A contact marked by mistrust and resentment generated by the wave of massive union protests so far this year that failed to stop, or shape, the unpopular pension reform. the prime minister Elisabeth Borne met on Tuesday and this Wednesday with the leaders of the main unions in France.
The Executive of Emmanuel Macron He had only met once with the heads of the workers’ organizations during the intense struggle to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years (with 43 years contributing to receive a full pension). It was April 5th and that meeting turned out to be a “failure”. It lasted less than an hour. This time it is a more serious contact. Borne individually receives each of the union officials on an agenda. In these meetings there is no agenda of fixed topics.
Will they manage to turn the page on the pulse for pensions?
All union leaders have expressed to Borne their opposition to the reform of the pensions and they have asked him to remove it. A request that has very little chance of being heard. The measure was already promulgated in mid-April and will enter into force progressively from September. Opponents of the text, however, cling to a law proposal from the opposition —its vote is scheduled for June 8— to repeal the increase in the legal retirement age at 64 years old. They have called for a new day of strikes and protests throughout the country for June 6.
However, the Government faces this round of meetings with the esperanza turn the page on pension reform. A difficult goal to achieve. This contested measure has not only monopolized the public debate in France since the beginning of the year, but also led Macron’s popularity to his lower levels since the revolt of the yellow vests. In fact, the union leaders want to assert the show of force in recent months —the most massive of the 21st century in the bustling neighboring country— to weigh more heavily on the decisions of the centrist Executive, although the president has already reminded them on multiple occasions that it does not want to modify its economic policies anchored in the right.
“We cannot continue as before”
“We will not settle for half measures,” warned the general secretary of the CFDT – the union with the largest number of affiliates in France -, Laurent Berger. “We have talked about our claims”, basically about wages. “But we will not accept a calendar” of negotiations on any issue other than pensions, said the head of Force Ouvrière, Frédéric Souillot, who has asked that “real room for maneuver be left to social actors.”
Even more forceful was the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet: “I will tell you that the country will not return to normality if they do not withdraw the pension reform.” “Things cannot continue as before. (…) That time is over when we could only negotiate commas based on texts from the Government or employers,” added the head of the second union in the neighboring country.
The union officials also warned of the negative consequences of the fact that the parties related to Macron block the parliamentary debate on the bill to repeal the increase in the minimum retirement age. Given the possibility that a majority of deputies support this measure, the presidential coalition plans to prevent it from being debated in the National Assembly for budgetary reasons. A decision that would further hinder the fragile dialogue with the unions.
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