Always opposed to pension reform, the inter-union had an appointment with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne at Matignon, Wednesday April 5 in the morning. The meeting fell short. Noting ” a failure with the government’s refusal to withdraw its text, the union leaders maintain their call to continue the protest.
They had arrived together at the Hôtel de Matignon for this meeting with the head of government. The eight union leaders, united under the same banner and opposed to the pension reform, were able to speak with Elisabeth Borne. And barely an hour after the start of the meeting, they came out and announced with one voice that the positions on both sides were unchanged.
The Prime Minister does not intend to respond to thecall for the withdrawal of the project. And the intersyndicale, which does not envisage any other outcome than this, and does not intend to change its mind either. The interview is therefore a failure “, we say in the ranks of the unions.
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” We will not return to the consultation table as if nothing had happened »
” 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 “, said Cyril Chabanier (CFTC) on behalf of the inter-union on the steps of Matignon. ” It is inevitably a failure when the Prime Minister makes no opening on this discussion. (…) We appeal to the wisdom of the Constitutional Council which must hear the just anger of the workers ” he added, while hammering that the unions refuse to ” turn the page and open, as the government wishes, other sequences of consultations “.
On Twitter, the CTFC speaks of a ” serious decision from Elisabeth Borne. ” This is why we will not return to the consultation table as if nothing had happened and call once again for the pure and simple withdrawal of the text “, adds the union.
Other union official presents – it was her baptism of fire – the new general secretary of the CGT. Sophie Binet spoke at the microphone ofAlexis Bedu from the Economy department, to warn the government: without withdrawing the pension reform, there will be no return to normal. “ From the beginning, the government has the same strategy: it plays on the division of the inter-union. You have seen it, the intersyndicale, it is always united, it will be united until the end. The government plays on, supposedly, fatalism, shortness of breath; shortness of breath does not occur. There is a deep anger, a clear refusal of this reform which continues to increase, it must be heard. In this meeting, we had the impression that the government was in a parallel reality. There, the message we send them is: we have to land, look at what is happening in the country, we have to look at the dull anger that is rising in the country, the anger that is rising among young people, employees, strikers who lost, for some strikers, a month of strike!
When you earn 2,000 euros a month, a month’s salary lost following a strike, it’s not nothing, it’s not for nothing that you go on strike. The inter-union, it continues to mobilize and call to mobilize until the withdrawal of this reform. This is what happened with the mobilization against the CPE [Contrat première embauche, NDLR] in 2006, is that the CPE was withdrawn one month after its adoption by 49-3. We say it clearly, we cannot move on until the pension reform is withdrawn. The government will not be able to govern the country until this reform is withdrawn, as we can see. »
Laurent Berger, secretary general of the CFDT, makes the same observation: “ The responsibility, the wisdom, was to listen to social mobilization by withdrawing the 64-year-olds. It is nothing. We call on workers to join the processions tomorrow “, he announced, while a new day of interprofessional strike is announced for Thursday, April 6.
The leader of the CFDT Laurent Berger who said to rely on “ the wisdom of the Constitutional Council which must render its decision on April 14. Unions like the left are also counting on the validation by the High Court of the Shared Initiative Referendum (RIP) on the reform. On the government side, we are counting on the fatigue of the demonstrators as the spring break in the first zone begins on April 8.
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(and with AFP)