Big smiles when entering for the group photo, crestfallen when leaving an hour later.
Unsurprisingly, this first formal meeting between the inter-union and the government since the start of the protest did not lead to tangible progress.
The former did not hesitate to qualify this stage as a “
failure
”.
Everyone had time to speak.
Élisabeth Borne, first, to explain the position of the government, and the various trade union organizations have in turn read their own text of grievances in the protocol order.
All have emphasized the need to suspend, or even withdraw, the pension reform as a prerequisite for any discussions on work or hardship.
To show their determination and their union, the leaders all concluded their speech with the following sentence:
“But before that Madam Prime Minister, can you answer this question: Are you ready to withdraw this reform
?
»
.
At the end of this round table, “
the head of government tried to move on to questions of arduousness.
Laurent Berger then politely interrupted her to ask her to answer this question
,” explains François Hommeril of the CFE-CGC.
A question to which the main interested party answered in the negative, quickly activating the end of the meeting.
The final whistle was sounded by the general secretary of the CFDT.
The eight unions present therefore stood up as one man and left the room.
An expected outcome
A sign that no one placed much hope on this meeting, a text had already been prepared.
“
We repeated to the Prime Minister that there can be no other democratic outcome than the withdrawal of the text.
The Prime Minister replied that she wanted to maintain her text, a serious decision
”, thus read Cyril Chabanier of the CFTC, on behalf of the intersyndicale.
All the leaders then spoke at the microphone in the courtyard of Matignon.
Laurent Berger thus appealed to “
the wisdom of the Constitutional Council
” which must render its decision on April 14, encouraging “
a maximum of workers to join the processions tomorrow
”, date of an 11th day of mobilization against the reform.
Immediately afterwards, Sophie Binet, the brand new general secretary of the CGT, read a text and answered a few questions.
“
We cannot move on until this reform is withdrawn
,” she warned.
"
The inter-union will be united until the end
", she affirmed, sweeping away speculation on the recent dissonances between the CFDT, which claims to "
withdraw or suspend
" the text, and the CGT, which wants the "
withdrawal
plain and simple.
Read also“We need him”: Laurent Berger, the bad conscience of macronie
A few minutes later, the Prime Minister spoke in her turn, surrounded by the Minister of Labour, Olivier Dussopt and the Minister of Transformation and the Public Service, Stanislas Guerini.
Without denying the disagreements with the unions, she refused to speak of failure.
She preferred to point to “
respectful exchanges
” and assured that she had “
heard
” the requests.
For the sake of openness, she recalled being "
available to work on work issues
" (difficulty, long career, etc.) and insisted on driving the point home, adding that she "
did not plan to move forward without social partners
”.