“The traditional unions are not comfortable with the ecological question, which they often continue to relegate to 13e item on the agenda in their meetings, purposely caricature Adrien Gaillard. So we created our own, with ecology as a gateway, forr transform the productive apparatus from within. » This 30-year-old engineer in a cybersecurity consulting firm is a member of the board of Printemps Ecolique.
Launched in early 2020 by a group of around fifty student and employee volunteers sensitive to climate change, “the first eco-union in history”, as its initiators like to define it, intends to impose itself during the next professional elections which will take place at the end of the year and in 2023. The objective is to use the lever of social dialogue to accelerate the ecological transition within businesses and public bodies.
Adrien Gaillard, like the majority of the first members, explains that he had no “no union culture before that”. The Ecological Spring thus intends in particular to attract young employees, who are said to be more sensitive to ecological issues than their elders, but whose distance from the unions is even stronger: 5% of under 35s are unionized in France, against – only – 11% for all employees. A good strategy?
“Despite a real awareness in recent years, traditional unions are, in fact, behind on ecological issues, as they have been for a long time, for example on the issue of gender inequalities.comments the sociologist Camille Dupuy. This is explained in particular by the fact that the great strongholds of trade unionism are in the industrial sector, which is very masculine, where the ecological transition can raise fears of job destruction. »
Weigh in CSEs
Never mind, the Ecological Spring takes the form of a confederation of sectoral unions, ten in number for the moment, affecting sectors as varied as “metallurgy and steel industry”, “banks, insurance and mutual insurance”, the various public functions, “non-food trade”, “culture, media and telecommunications”…
In these different sectors, the objective is, in the long term, to weigh in on the social and economic committees (CSE) as elected “to participate in claims, negotiations and company agreements on employee working conditions, wages, training, etc., by guiding them in the direction of eco-responsible practices and better consideration of the emergency ecological », completes Anne Le Corre, co-founder and permanent member of the union, who worked in the automotive and consulting sectors.
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