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Pensions, wages, inflation... The unions back at Matignon, received by Élisabeth Borne

2023-05-16T04:37:20.386Z

Highlights: The unions are back in France for the first time since the promulgation of the pension reform. They will meet with the Prime Minister on Tuesday and the CGT on Wednesday. The CGT wants for its part an indexation of wages on the rise in prices. The unions also want a suspension of contribution exemptions for branches that have minima below the minimum wage. The government says it will not give in to the unions' demands and will continue to work with them to find a solution to the problem.


After a meeting with the inter-union at the beginning of April that had been cut short, Elisabeth Borne receives this time each of the five organizations


They are back at Matignon. The unions are received this Tuesday and Wednesday by Elisabeth Borne for the first time since the promulgation of the highly contested pension reform, which still occupies all minds and could place them "in a position of strength" in negotiations.

After a meeting with the inter-union at the beginning of April that had been cut short, the Prime Minister receives this time each of the five representative organizations, without a precise agenda.

The Prime Minister, regularly heckled by the pots and pans of opponents of the reform, says she is "listening to the priorities" of trade unions and employers' organizations.

" READ ALSO Elisabeth Borne, a year at Matignon: "I'm not here to beat I do not know what record"

While she blows out this Tuesday her first candle in Matignon, receiving Monday a satisfaction from Emmanuel Macron for his action tinged with "strength, determination and courage", she will meet at the end of the afternoon with FO and the CFDT. Then Wednesday morning with the CFE-CGC and the CFTC, before the CGT in the afternoon.

These meetings are part of the roadmap that Emmanuel Macron has entrusted to Elisabeth Borne to revive the executive after the pension crisis.

The inter-union reiterated Monday in a statement its "determined" opposition to the reform, against which it organizes a 14th day of strike and demonstrations on June 6, two days before the examination of a bill of the Liot group to repeal it.

The unions invite the deputies to vote for it, to "(respect) the will of the population massively expressed since January".

Trade union demands

Liot's text is the subject of intense reflection by the majority groups, which weigh in particular the argument of "financial inadmissibility", in reference to the constitutional rule that a proposal from parliamentarians cannot deteriorate public finances.

Elisabeth Borne met Sunday in Matignon to discuss the groups Renaissance, Horizons and MoDem, with the president of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet. Several ministers and leaders of the majority also spoke about it at the Elysee Palace on Monday morning, according to a participant. The majority intergroup will unveil its strategy on Tuesday.

After the forceps adoption of the pension reform, which fueled the May 1 protests, the unions come with a bag full of demands and could raise the stakes.

In the context of inflation, the unions mainly hear about wages, and will repeat that they consider "unfair and brutal" the degressivity of unemployment benefits or the conditionality of access to the RSA (minimum income for people without resources, editor's note) - whose beneficiaries could be subject to sanctions.

All the unions demand that public aid to companies be "conditional" on social objectives, such as wage increases, and environmental objectives.

The CFDT will ask for a suspension of contribution exemptions for branches that have minima below the minimum wage. The CGT, which comes, in the words of its number 1 Sophie Binet to the Parisian "to make demands", "to negotiate, not to discuss", wants for its part an indexation of wages on the rise in prices.

Sophie Binet: "I go to Matignon to negotiate, not to discuss"

The employers' organisations, which will be received next week, would have preferred autonomous negotiations with the unions before seeing the government. Medef regularly highlights their agreement on value sharing.

"We will continue to say that the page is not turned"

In addition to the employment of seniors or arduousness, all subjects rejected by the Constitutional Council, the Prime Minister intends to build with the social partners a "social agenda" for a "new pact of life at work".

A bill, "which will embark the result of negotiations" between unions and employers, should be tabled at the end of the year or early 2024, according to Matignon.

But despite the resumption of dialogue, "mistrust will remain extremely deep," warned Sophie Binet for whom "there will be no return to normal if this reform (of pensions) is not abandoned".

"We will continue to say that the page is not turned" on pensions, but "we can not not talk about inflation, purchasing power," said CFTC president Cyril Chabanier, believing that the unions are "in a position of strength thanks to the social movement".

"Everything will cost more," abounds Laurent Berger, boss of the CFDT, which will also have requirements in terms of method. "What is the co-construction they intend to enter?"

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2023-05-16

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