The unions do not expect a massive mobilization.
Definitely, it never comes at the right time: in the middle of a long weekend, often in the middle of school holidays… Worse, this year the 1er May is a Sunday, and a week after the presidential election. Promising large processions with hundreds of thousands of activists would not be credible. Moreover, no union risks it.
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Not even the CGT. A few days before the Labor Day meeting, the regulars admit that they have been largely absorbed by other subjects and that everything is not yet fixed. “The concern of the moment was to ensure that the extreme right was defeated. Things will fall into place in the coming days. If we had had fifteen more days to prepare, it would have been good», Regrets Fabrice Angéi, confederal secretary of the Montreuil plant. The appeal has nevertheless been launched and the union is aiming for 100 to 150 assembly points in France. Marine Le Pen eliminated, it is now a question of making this 1er May the “first protest meeting of this new five-year term” .
Philippe Martinez, the secretary general of the CGT, will not be the only ones to parade in Paris. The FSU and Solidaires, as often allied in inter-union with the CGT, have also planned to remind the President of the Republic in the street that they are not ready to let him implement his reforms unilaterally. For his last 1er May at the head of FO, Yves Veyrier will begin early in the morning with the traditional gathering at the wall of the Fédérés in the Père-Lachaise cemetery, then will join his CGT counterpart at the start of the demonstration at the start of the afternoon to pronounce his second speech of the day. “For many, Macron is a relief. But it’s not a huge craze either. We are rather in the gloom », he points out. Before starting the litany of angry subjects: purchasing power at half mast, too low wages, soaring prices, ecological emergency and of course the project to postpone the retirement age to 65 years.
Unsa reinforcement
Themes that resonate with all the unions, including the CFDT which will nevertheless, as usual, stand apart. For the occasion, France’s leading trade union has decided to focus its message on climate change and its impact on the world of work by organizing a fun afternoon open to everyone, even children.
In the end, the real novelty this year will be the presence of Unsa alongside the CGT in the event. Its secretary general, Laurent Escure, is not used to processions, but he has been warning for several weeks about the “deaf and explosive anger” which swells on questions of purchasing power.
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He has already broken with tradition, which classifies Unsa in the camp of the CFDT and far from demonstrations of force, by joining the demonstrations of March 17 for wages “It is also perhaps because Unsa has two very strong bastions – at the SNCF and at the RATP – that there will be elections and that it needs to catch up with its ambiguous position on pensions., mocks a CGT executive. Either way, this reinforcement is unlikely to be enough to flesh out ranks that have been sparse for years. In 2021, only a hundred thousand people marched throughout France for a 1er May marked by the violence of the black blocks.