Retreats: meetings at Matignon to turn, or not, the page

The Prime Minister promised that she would be "listening to all the subjects" that the unions would like to address during this meeting which will begin at 10:00 in Matignon, despite "points of disagreement" on the pension reform, in particular the postponement of the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

If the executive refuses to talk about the 64 years, "we will leave," warned the leader of the CFDT, Laurent Berger. "It can last five minutes," said the new boss of the CGT, Sophie Binet.

"Tomorrow, the government that wants to turn the page will see that we do not want to turn the page," said AFP a union leader, after a meeting Tuesday of the inter-union in the presence of Sophie Binet.

"The inter-union is well united, united. It is reassuring, nothing has changed" since the replacement of Philippe Martinez at the head of the CGT, said this official.

Sophie Binet, new boss of the CGT in Auvergne, in France, March 31, 2023 © JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

The meeting with Ms. Borne, which takes place on the eve of an 11th day of demonstrations and strikes against the reform, "is already written," said a senior minister, who expects a stalemate.

'Impasse'

A union source sweeps away the recent dissonances between the CFDT, which demands to "withdraw or suspend" the text, and the CGT, which wants the "withdrawal" pure and simple: "in reality talking about suspension, it is like for the CPE (First Employment Contract), it is not applying".

In addition to the withdrawal, the CFDT should demand a social conference on work and pensions, according to its national secretary Yvan Ricordeau.

"We are at an impasse" because "as long as there is no withdrawal (...) we will not move on to something else, "abounded the boss of the ecologists Marine Tondelier Tuesday after a meeting with Elisabeth Borne, who consults all over the place to "enlarge the majority" and build a government program for the coming months.

"And when we are in a dead end, we must turn back," added PS leader Olivier Faure, who found the prime minister "destitute" of solutions to get out of the crisis.

This is the first time that the Prime Minister has received the trade unions since the presentation of the reform on 10th January.

Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt (L) and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne at the National Assembly in Paris on March 28, 2023 © Bertrand GUAY / AFP

This generated an almost weekly unprecedented mobilization of up to 1.3 million people in the streets on March 7 (according to the authorities), more than in 1995 or 2010. And these demonstrations have experienced renewed tensions after the adoption without a vote of the reform in Parliament, via 49.3.

The unions had already asked, in vain, to be received by Emmanuel Macron. Elisabeth Borne then sent them back to the Ministry of Labour.

Fatigue

On the government side, the wish is to "negotiate something else" than pensions, according to a minister, "worried about the level of tension", pending the decision of the Constitutional Council on Monday.

Elisabeth Borne considers that there are "many topics to be addressed" on "the quality of life at work, on the end of career, on the prevention of arduousness".

The executive is also counting on the fatigue of the demonstrators as the spring break begins on April 8. "The way things went on Tuesday (March 28) is rather positive: a decrease in mobilization, unions that accept to be received," said a Renaissance MP after the 10th day of mobilization.

Conversely, the unions intend Thursday "to show that the mobilization is still powerful".

The leader of the CFDT Laurent Berger hopes in L'Obs that the Constitutional Council "will censor the law". Because "if there is censorship of particular points such as the senior index, the arduousness at work, etc., but not of the 64 years, then it will not respond in any way to the social conflict in progress", according to him.

The Constitutional Council will make its decision on 14 April.

Both the unions and the left are also counting on the validation by the High Court of the referendum of shared initiative (RIP) on the reform.

© 2023 AFP