Will the hand extended by the executive be seized by the unions?
While the President of the Republic had closed the door to a meeting with the inter-union, and the government dismissed their proposal to appoint a mediator on the pension reform, Élisabeth Borne finally seized the bouncing ball, Tuesday evening.
The Prime Minister thus invited the organizations behind the social movement to Matignon, “
Monday or Tuesday
” next, according to Laurent Berger.
But what will be, precisely, the object of this meeting?
Asked Wednesday morning, several members of the government indicated that it would relate in particular – but not only – to the pension reform.
The subject will "
necessarily
" be addressed, noted the Minister Delegate for Industry, Roland Lescure, on France Inter, while specifying that "
the question is whether, when we agree not to be okay, we are able to talk about something else or not.
I think we have to talk about something else
”, he declared, calling for “
opening up avenues for the aftermath
”, pending the decision of the Constitutional Council on the text.
"
The question of pensions will be central, but [...] there is a text which has been adopted by Parliament
", added his colleague in charge of Transport, Clément Beaune, on Europe 1. In other words, the meeting will be the opportunity to come back to the text, and more specifically to points which "
depend on the application of the reform
", such as arduousness, but there will be no question of "
rewriting the text adopted in Parliament
".
Similarly, the conversation should address other themes opened up by the social movement, such as wages or work, considered the Minister: "
The idea is not to have a second parliamentary debate around the Prime Minister
on the sole issue of pensions, he insisted.
Raising the legal age to 64 should not be negotiable either.
Read also Pension reform: what legal points will the Constitutional Council examine?
"Beware of disappointment"
For the government, this meeting is therefore also an opportunity for a transition towards a desired normalization of relations with the trade unions, which have been hard hit by the sequence on pensions.
For this, it will be necessary to re-establish links with particularly suspicious employee representatives.
Likewise, the executive wants to prepare for the aftermath, and put this explosive subject behind it definitively.
For their part, however, the employee representatives remain cautious: “
The invitation of Ms. Borne is well done at the inter-union.
It is therefore in this context that we discuss it.
But beware of disappointment if what annoys is not dismissed.
The effect would be disastrous and the 6 would take another turn
, ”warned Laurent Escure, boss of Unsa,
Same observation with Laurent Berger.
“
It is not possible that it is not on the agenda
”, warned the boss of the CFDT, on FranceInfo.
The trade unionist hopes to be able to "
talk about 64 years old, about what is happening today in our country
", but with a prerequisite: "
suspend 64 years old
" for the employees concerned, and start mediation to "
lower the confrontation
" .
Two points already ruled out by the government: Roland Lescure has thus closed the door to this hypothesis of a “
deus ex machina
” mediator, like François Hollande or Jean-Dominique Senard, to get the different parties to agree.
Similarly, François Bayrou warned that setting aside the text is "not
not possible
”, on France 2, Wednesday morning.
Despite this, Laurent Berger therefore called on his partners to accept the Prime Minister's proposal, believing that "
until last night, there was no reason for the CGT not to go there
".
“
There is still time to talk to each other and put this reform on hold to find a social compromise
,” he pleaded.