Can unions die? through Stephanie Matteudi-Lecocq. Rue de Seine, 339 pages, €19.90.
4 stars
The image of the eight leaders of the main French unions, exceptionally gathered at the Labor Exchange at the start of January 2023 to shout their common opposition to the pension reform proposed by President Emmanuel Macron, should not delude us. This rare moment of unity is more of an exception than a rule in the cluttered landscape of French trade unionism, a landscape in which social dialogue is chronically unfruitful.
This observation runs through Stéphanie Matteudi-Lecocq’s entire book, which lifts the hood to understand why the trade union world is becalmed today, identifies its jammed cogs and proposes solutions to relaunch it in the face of the challenges posed by the world of work in 21st century.
The three sources of tricolor unionism
How did we get here ? The director of training in social dialogue within the firm Alixio recounts with an effective and lively pen the way in which the French trade unions have drawn their inspiration from three main sources: revolutionary trade unionism first, that resulting from Christian social sensitivity then, then autonomous trade unionism, itself nourished by the disappointments of the large confederations.
It shows how employers’ conservatism and the revolutionary discourse of the first unions shaped the DNA of a French-style unionism in which it is a question of imposing on the bosses’ side, of opposing on the employees’ side. The one who is also a specialist in labor law clearly explains how the State intervened between these two fronts, often more manager than guarantor of social relations, sometimes abusing its role of arbiter, to the point of preventing the exercise of a real social democracy…
Because relations are not very cooperative between unions of employers and employees, the State alone will organize itself from 1890 around the construction of protective labor legislation. Between the two wars, the strengthening of the social role of the State was desired, then, at the Liberation, by force of circumstance, it became the privileged interlocutor of social dialogue. But, over the years, with the creation of works councils in 1946, the Auroux laws in 1982, then the El Khomri and Pénicaud laws, the company became the place where a very large part of social standards were developed.
The mechanics of social dialogue
It is therefore logical that Stéphanie Matteudi-Lecocq immerses us in the heart of the company, explains with precision but without losing her reader the mechanics of social dialogue, and wonders about the consequences of the multiple reforms which have not ceased to shake up its rules. Including that of the social and economic committee, which comes at a time when social dialogue must invite the social partners to reinvent universal social protection for a new status for professional workers, far beyond our current labor law.
The last part of the book is not the least innovative, with a sensitive but lucid reflection on the activists who bring social dialogue to life, their motivations, their commitment, their skills, their moods… and the role they will be brought to play tomorrow. One of the books that provides the most keys to understanding the complex social news of this beginning of the year.