The new secretary general of the CGT, Sophie Binet, said on Monday that she did not believe in the break on pension reform, believing that there was “no other way out of the crisis than withdrawal”.
“I do not believe in the break (…), there is no other way out of the crisis than the withdrawal of this reform”, declared Ms. Binet on France Inter, questioned on the proposal of the CFDT to suspend the reform and organize a mediation.
Elected on Friday at the head of the central trade union, she showed her desire to maintain the unity of the inter-union.
For her, “what characterizes this mobilization” is “that there is union unity”.
The inter-union “never lets go”, she insisted. “Why? Because all the trade unions are united by the same determination to win and this is the mandate given to me by this CGT Congress, so I will continue like this”.
She added that she intended to discuss with her CFDT counterpart Laurent Berger “in the next few hours” and that the inter-union would prepare the meeting with Elisabeth Borne scheduled for Wednesday on Tuesday.
She said she expected from this meeting “the withdrawal of the pension reform, it’s simple. So it can be very short”, noting that if the answer is no “the meeting is likely to be very quick”.
She also said she was convinced that the demonstrators would be “extremely numerous” Thursday for the eleventh day of mobilization against the reform.
Asked whether she saw herself as a symbol as the first woman appointed to head the CGT, she recognized “a very strong message”.
But she stressed that she did not intend to be “the tree that hides the forest”, evoking “an impulse at all levels” for women to take responsibility.
A little earlier on Radio J, the number two of the CFDT Marylise Léon estimated that it was “very good news” that a woman took the head of the CGT, while noting that there was “a job clarification of the line after the CGT Congress which experienced several elements of internal divergences”.
04/03/2023 09:53:33 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP