The battle for pensions is lost but other fights continue, in particular that of purchasing power. Thursday, June 15, the eight main employee organizations and five youth defense movements, meeting as an inter-union, noted the fact that they had no “failed to make the government back down” on raising the legal retirement age from 62 to 64.
There will be no new demonstrations against this measure, which closes a series of actions initiated in mid-January. But the protagonists assure that the fight will continue in different forms and address other themes, based on collective reflection. From now on, they are urging workers to demand a pay rise.
The fourteenth day of mobilization, June 6, against the reform was therefore the “der des der”. Laurent Berger, the general secretary of the CFDT, had moreover clearly implied this by indicating, that day, that ” the game [était] coming to an end ». The Cedtist leader no longer harbored any hopes because it was almost certain that the National Assembly would reject, forty-eight hours later, the bill of the Freedoms, Independents, Overseas and Territories (LIOT) group aimed at repealing the transition to 64 years. And that is precisely what happened.
“The end of the first half”
During the press conference they gave Thursday evening at the headquarters of the CFE-CGC, the members of the inter-union admitted their failure, while refusing to turn the page. Some union officials even made it clear that Mr. Berger’s remarks did not seem to them very timely. “It’s the end of the first half, it’s not the end of the game”estimated Thomas Vacheron, confederal secretary of the CGT, in a transparent allusion to the small sentence of the boss of the CFDT.
If they stop calling on the population to take to the streets, the thirteen coalition members seek to show that they are still resisting. “We will continue to explain all the bad blows carried out through this reform”assured Yvan Ricordeau, national secretary of the CFDT. “If we can attack the implementing decrees, we will. Our lawyers are on it »added Patricia Drevon, confederal secretary of Force Ouvrière.
Above all, the trade unions and youth movements reaffirm their desire to ” work together “ on six issues: wages and pensions, working conditions, occupational health, social democracy, gender equality, environment and conditionality of public aid to businesses. “We believe we are capable of formulating common demands within these themes”, said Cyril Chabanier, the president of the CFTC. Such an approach has a good chance of leading to the ordinances of September 2017, according to Mme Drevon: employee organizations have specific requirements on these texts which have had negative implications – in their eyes – for elected personnel in companies.
You have 21.8% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.