From piggy banks drizzled during a protest to online jackpots displaying multi-digit amounts, strike funds have reappeared as opposition to pension reform grew in strength over the National Days of action – the eighth takes place on Wednesday 15 March. They provide support to those who stop working and deprive themselves of part of their salary, all the more essential in a context of high inflation.
How many solidarity systems of this nature are there? The many initiatives have not been exhaustively identified to date, but a interactive mapping makes it possible to locate some of them, as indicated by the sociologist Gabriel Rosenman, a former railway worker and militant of SUD-Rail, who is preparing a thesis on the subject. At the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, during the mobilization against the plan for a universal pension system, “up to 380 strike funds online” had been counted, he recalls.
Two main practices stand out. One has a sectoral or local dimension. These are in particular online kitties opened at the initiative of trade union sections or federations, such as CGT-railway workers or CGT-energy, and funded by donations, with the aim of helping women and men participating in “long strikes”says Mr. Rosenman.
The other is to set up funds supplemented by fractions of union dues. Reserved for members, the funds are released to allow those concerned – for example precarious workers – to participate in the demonstrations of force which take place piecemeal, deciphers Mr. Rosenman.
Legal support
Many of these mechanisms disappear when the struggle breaks down. But there is at least one that stands out from the crowd: it is the Caisse Nationale d’Action Syndicale (CNAS), founded about fifty years ago by the CFDT. A device « unique » of its kind, emphasizes Jean-Michel Denis, professor of sociology at the University of Paris-I-Panthéon Sorbonne and author of a study on this subject: the central cededist is, he says, the only organization in France “to have established, at the confederal level, a permanent financial support body for its striking members”.
The CNAS is fed by a levy of 8.6% on the contribution paid by people who encartent to the CFDT. Many spontaneous donations have also been made to the Belleville power plant for several weeks, which is unprecedented, for Jean-Michel Rousseau, confederal secretary in charge of the fund: “We receive emails every day, people come to deposit checks at our headquarters. This is the first time that i see this. »
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