Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: Xose Bouzas / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 17:31 pm, May 06, 2023

After the invitation issued by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Friday, CGT General Secretary Sophie Binet will visit Matignon on May 16 or 17. The union had cast doubt on its participation in these exchanges. The invitation was sent to four other unions.

CGT General Secretary Sophie Binet will visit Matignon on May 16 or 17, responding to the Prime Minister's invitation to the unions for bilateral talks, the CGT said Saturday. The prime minister sent out the invitations on Friday for talks without a "precise agenda", which come after the promulgation of the highly contested pension reform and major demonstrations on May 1.

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Invitations sent to the five representative unions

"Sophie Binet will go to Elisabeth Borne," a CGT spokeswoman told AFP, casting doubt on her participation in the exchanges. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne issued these invitations to the five representative unions - CFDT, CGT, FO- CFE-CGC and CFTC - a month after a meeting in Matignon with the inter-union opposed to the reform. The meeting was cut short and the trade unions scheduled a new day of demonstrations on 6 June.

The boss of the CFDT Laurent Berger, who intends to accept the invitation, had said Thursday that the "battle" against the pension reform was "not over". He notably launched an appeal to "all parliamentarians" who will examine on 8th June a bill by the independent group Liot to repeal the postponement of the retirement age to 64 years. Regarding the upcoming talks at Matignon, "we will have a requirement of method" and "we would like to know if it is to negotiate, discuss or 'blablater'", he said, before Matignon launched his invitations.