Each has their turn. Union leaders continued to parade in Matignon, Wednesday, May 17, to meet with Elisabeth Borne, after the opening of bilateral discussions on Tuesday by Force Ouvrière (FO) and the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT).
Discussions resumed at the end of the morning between the Prime Minister and the President of the French Confederation of Managers – General Confederation of Managers (CFE-CGC), François Hommeril, followed at noon by that of the French Confederation of Workers Christians (CFTC), Cyril Chabanier, then the General Secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), Sophie Binet was, at the end of the afternoon, the last of this cycle of meetings.
After an interview of almost two hours with Elisabeth Borne at Matignon, the new number one of the CGT had very harsh words. “I am angry”, after having “noted[ed] that, on almost all subjects, it was an end of inadmissibility, with a policy aligned with the interest and the will of the employers”, said Sophie Binet .
“I could not give an end of inadmissibility since I was listening to the subjects” put on the table by the unions, retorted the Prime Minister, who came to say a few words to the press at the end exchanges that she described as “dense, long”.
Elisabeth Borne, who will receive the employers’ organizations next Monday and Tuesday, once again said she was ready to “let the social dialogue fully take place”, and expressed the wish that a “multilateral” with employers and unions could be organized soon.
Borne considers the initiative of the LIOT group “irresponsible”
“A class photo of the unions with Professor Macron before June 8,” blasted Sophie Binet, saying she did not see the point of a multilateral meeting with the President of the Republic or the Prime Minister on the social calendar, ” if there were no concrete announcements on the issue of withdrawing the pension reform or raising wages”.
The leader regretted that, on wages, Elisabeth Borne had sent the unions back to discussions with employers, explaining to them that the public authorities had an “obvious responsibility”, whether on the salaries of civil servants, the indexation of salaries on inflation or the conditionality of public aid to businesses.
She also denounced the “arsonist firefighter” attitude of the executive, maneuvering to prevent a vote in Parliament on the bill brought by the deputies of the Freedoms, Independents, Overseas and Territories (LIOT) group aimed at to repeal the pension reform.
The prime minister ruled on Wednesday that the bill is “unconstitutional”. “It is quite irresponsible for a parliamentary group to suggest that we can present a bill that cuts 18 billion [d’euros] resources and that this bill could prosper,” added the leader. of the government, evoking “a kind of mirror to the larks”.
“It would be unacceptable [that it] not be examined”, reacted the secretary general of the reformist union of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, who calls with the inter-union for a fourteenth day of mobilization on June 6.
No specific agenda and refusal of “measurements”
Without a defined agenda, each union came to Matignon with its own priorities. Like Frédéric Souillot (FO), first received on Tuesday, who described his exchange with Ms. Borne as “firm, on each side of the table”.
“We got the ball rolling, but we didn’t dance”, he summed up when he left, arguing: “We talked about our demands”, in particular on salaries, but “we did not accept calendar” of negotiations on subjects other than pensions. “We just have to take things the right way: if this reform is withdrawn or does not apply, we will discuss” the rest, he concluded.
The numbers one of the CFTC and the CFE-CGC, Cyril Chabanier and François Hommeril, were more lenient than their counterpart of the CGT.
François Hommeril has indeed explained that he does not make the withdrawal of the pension reform a prerequisite for this “resumption of contact” with the head of government, even if the trade unions have “no longer confidence”, and believe that they have been “betrayed on this folder.
“We will judge on actions”, warned Cyril Chabanier, while defending the approach of the unions: “we cannot not talk about these subjects” especially since the unions are, according to him, “in a position of strength”. .
“We will not be satisfied with scoops,” Mr. Berger had warned the day before, unfolding his proposals on working conditions, wages, pensions, “subjects on which workers cannot wait” according to him.
The CFE-CGC set out its priorities, in particular the reopening of the “work” order file, which it makes a “prerequisite”. But François Hommeril hardly seemed optimistic, while the head of state again welcomed these orders last week.
Cyril Chabanier insisted on the issue of wages, calling for the increase in the index point for civil servants as well as the revision of salary grids in the private sector, which too often start below the minimum wage.
According to Cyril Chabanier, Elisabeth Borne has shown herself to be open to discussion on an extension of pensions, the conditionality of public aid to companies, the revision of salary scales, the opening of negotiations on the increase in the index point , the employment of seniors, the universal time savings account – even if it has sometimes referred these subjects to the discussion between social partners.
The unions will present their common demands on May 30, before a fourteenth day of mobilization on June 6. Some opponents “will not wait wisely” for these deadlines: the Network for the General Strike, which wants to “build a real balance of power” with the executive, calls for a rally at 4 p.m. Wednesday near the Invalides, not far from Matignon .
