- Unions and government are sticking to their positions on pension reform.
- It is not the first moment of tension in the five-year period.
- According to a specialist in trade unionism, Emmanuel Macron practices a real break with François Hollande or Nicolas Sarkozy in his relationship to the unions.
Is the line permanently cut? After more than a month of mobilization against the pension reform, the unions - which have planned new demonstrations this Saturday - are very pessimistic about the possibility of reaching a compromise with the government. "For the executive, social dialogue is a foreign language" tackles François Hommeril, president of the CFE-CGC. It must be said that since 2017, relations between the unions and Emmanuel Macron have often been strained. But is it really a surprise?
Even before his election, the current President of the Republic had defined what he believed was the role of the unions. “I want less political unionism, he explained in March 2017. We need intermediary bodies, but in the right place (…) I trust unions to regulate labor relations in the sector and the company. But they should not replace the holders of the general interest ”. In other words, unions would not have to intervene in the political decision-making process.
"We are in a strange system! "
The implementation of this Macron “theory” will not take long. Admittedly, after his election to the Elysée Palace, the head of state immediately received the unions to discuss the reform of the Labor Code. But, very quickly, the opening will reach its limits: despite numerous meetings with the social partners during the summer, the executive maintains the vagueness until the last minute on the content of the orders presented on August 31, 2017. " We had the impression of speaking in a vacuum, as if we were participating in a simulacrum of dialogue, ”then laments Fabrice Angéi, of the CGT, questioned by“ Les Jours ”.
In the spring of 2018, it was the turn of the boss of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, to attack the presidential method: “With Emmanuel Macron, either we agree on everything, or we have no say in the matter. This will increase radicalism and violence in society ”. A few months later, the movement of "yellow vests" will burst and take the executive by surprise, as will the unions, which will struggle to get closer to the movement.
New tension in February 2019: after many meetings, the social partners (employers 'and workers' organizations) cannot agree on a reform of unemployment insurance. If several unions believe that their hands were tied by the state (which asked them for a savings plan of several billion euros), Emmanuel Macron criticizes for their part their inability to get along. Faced with the presidents of departments gathered on February 21, 2019 at the Elysée, he does not hide his nervousness: "We are in a funny system! Every day in the country, we say: "intermediary bodies, territorial democracy, social democracy, let us do it". And when you give your hand, you say: "my good sir, it's hard, take it back" ".
Sarkozy, Holland, Macron, same fight?
Do all these sequences - added to that of the pension reform - mark a real break between Emmanuel Macron and his predecessors? "Relations between government and unions were strained before Emmanuel Macron came to power," said Rémi Bourguignon, professor at the University of Paris-Est Créteil and specialist in unionism. Nicolas Sarkozy had made the weakening of intermediate bodies a central theme of his campaign in 2012. And François Hollande had ended up using 49-3 to pass the Labor Law in 2016. But unlike Emmanuel Macron, they had all two reached out to unions at the start of their term. ”
In September 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy had given a great speech on the usefulness of the social partners: “I want to tell you (…) [they] will be listened to, will be respected, perhaps more than has ever been the case. My door is always open to them and it will remain so. I also take this opportunity to express my esteem to these great social players. ” Questioned by Le Figaro in 2012, Jean-Claude Mailly, leader of FO at the time, had also recognized that "Nicolas Sarkozy kept his word at least until 2010 [date of the pension reform, which had caused massive mobilization] ”.
Rebelote with François Hollande. "The President of the Republic cannot decide everything, for everyone, everywhere," he said during the socialist primary in 2011. The principle of collective bargaining must be recognized, that the role of unions must be recognized more than 'today ". After arriving at the Elysée Palace, he also laid down the principle of a large annual social conference. But the episodes of the closing of the blast furnaces of Florange (Moselle) and the social conflict at Air France, where the CGT accuses him of taking the party of the direction, end up tarnishing the relations.
A risk for democracy?
“There is always a game between political power and social organizations, recognizes François Hommeril. It is never all rosy. But where the previous powers had the intelligence to have respect for the social partners, the current government has neither competence nor respect, "he attacked. For the union representative, Emmanuel Macron's method poses a real risk in the long term: “social bodies are part of democracy, just like civil society. To ignore this representativeness is to create areas of conflict and misunderstanding that destabilize democracy. ”
Eric Bourguignon bounces back: “For the government, the trade unions lack legitimacy. From his point of view, they can no longer play the role of intermediary bodies. At the time of the "yellow vests", we also saw that the executive asked them to appoint representatives, as if to create an alternative to the unions. "
Caught between a power that ignores them and a poorly unionized civil society, would unions be doomed to disappear? “Today, there is no real alternative to unions, says Rémi Bourguignon, and the latter are playing on it. But nothing says that new forms of intermediate bodies will not emerge one day ”.
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- Economy
- Pension reform
- Emmanuel Macron
- Union