It was the first radio interview with the new secretary general of the CGT, elected last Friday to the position occupied for more than eight years by Philippe Martinez.
The opportunity for Sophie Binet to show her determination to see the pension reform definitively withdrawn by the government.
"
There is no other way out of the crisis than withdrawal
," she said at the microphone of France Inter on Monday morning, adding that this is the mandate given to her by the CGT congress. .
The first woman elected at the head of the CGT intends to hammer home the message to Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, whom she will meet on Wednesday alongside the other leaders of the inter-union.
“
We cannot talk about other subjects until we withdraw this reform
,” warned Sophie Binet.
Before issuing an ultimatum to the government: the latter, according to her, “
must understand that today, it is not possible to lead the country if we do not withdraw this reform
”.
Asked about the proposal for a moratorium of several months formulated by Laurent Berger, Sophie Binet felt that she “
[did] not believe in the break
”.
"
When you suspend, you withdraw,
" she said, recalling that the law on the first employment contract (CPE), in 2006, had ended up never being applied despite its adoption in Parliament. .
The mobilization against the CPE was also her first major union fight, when she was a member of the student union Unef at the time.
Faithful to the line of Philippe Martinez, the new n ° 1 of the CGT declared to want to preserve the unity of the inter-union.
The election of Sophie Binet came as a surprise in a context of vigorous opposition within the central trade union reputed to be close to the Communist Party.
The new secretary general assured that she had “no
opponents in the CGT
”, then put these dissensions into perspective: “
It is a collective debate, we see that the votes are very large and that we have succeeded to have a united organization
”.
On the unprecedented nature of the appointment of a woman to this post, Sophie Binet did not deny the "
very strong message for female workers
", while saying that she did not want to be "
the tree that hides the forest
".
