“At first, I hardly believed it, blows Hervé Bonglet. Several activists – I am one of them – were convinced that it could not come from the Unsa-Police.” By “that”, the secretary general of the federation of judicial services of the National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions (Unsa) designates the incendiary press release published on June 30 by the police branch of his organization and signed jointly with Alliance. “We had to have a meeting of the Unsa office for me to believe it,” he continues.
Broadcast at the height of the riots that shook the neighborhoods after the death of Nahel, 17, killed by a police officer during a traffic check, the text created controversy. “Faced with these savage hordes, asking for calm is no longer enough, wrote the police representatives. It must be imposed!” Alliance and Unsa-Police called there to “restore republican order and put those arrested out of harm’s way”. “The time is not for union action but to fight against these ‘harmful'”, they added. If this tone did not really surprise on the part of Alliance, accustomed to offensive communication – sometimes outrageous -, it denotes the side of the Unsa-Police, usually much more measured. She also disturbed a lot within Unsa. Although the organization claims the autonomy of each of its branches, militants and leaders of the union were moved by a press release which they consider contrary to the values of their federation.
Immediately denounced
It was also denounced the same day by its secretary general, Laurent Escure: “The categorical defense of a profession, even sincere, does not authorize derogating by words from the values which make our Republic and which found the Unsa,” he tweeted. Meeting in the national office, the union adopted a motion on July 5 which “dissociates itself from the joint Alliance/Unsa-Police press release and condemns the terms used”. Within Unsa, a federation created in 1993 around seven pillars – democracy, solidarity, freedom, humanism, social justice and social dialogue, secularism – the terms used by the police unions were very shocking. “Words have a meaning, and those they used are not in line with our values, regrets Frédéric Marchand, secretary general of Unsa-Education. Activists called us to tell us that they did not want Unsa is associated with this.” Same music on the side of Unsa show and communication, which evokes a text “which can only be shocking”. “To tell you the truth, I first believed in a fake,” explains Fouzia Zekri, its general secretary. “The situation is uncomfortable for Unsa which, as a union, has always wanted to be cautious and nuanced”, analyzes Benjamin Pabion, author of a thesis on police unionism. To the slogan of the federal organization, “Free together”, Fouzia Zekri adds another motto: “The A of ‘autonomous’ must not destroy the ‘U’ of union'”.
While recalling to support the agents, the federations therefore draw a red line. “That police officers are attacked, that they are shot with Molotov cocktails, this is not acceptable, says Hervé Bonglet. But the comments made in this press release totally contravene the spirit of Unsa.” Other federations are even more virulent against their police colleagues. “It’s unacceptable,” said Fatiha Hiraki, general secretary of the Unsa Trade and Services Federation, who went so far as to describe the Alliance union in writing as “racist”.
“Unacceptable”
Within the Federation, we do not hesitate to point the finger at the second signatory of the press release to explain the sudden change of tone of the Unsa-Police, usually more measured in its statements. “It’s all the more strange that they had issued a press release the day before on the same subject, which was not at all as aggressive”, observes Fouzia Zekri. In the latter, the Unsa-Police denounced “unacceptable urban violence” and “groups of rioters determined to sow chaos”, but did not use the warlike vocabulary of the text initialed the next day. What let suspect, at Unsa, a change within his police house since his unprecedented union, in the last professional elections, with Alliance. “We have the impression that they were a little influenced,” sighs Fouzia Zekri.
In the motion of July 5, the office of Unsa thus affirms that it will “always be engaged in the defense of the republican police”, but asks Unsa-Police and the Autonomous Federation of Trade Unions of the Ministry of ‘interior [également affiliée à l’Unsa] to “reaffirm their attachment to the fundamental values of the Republic, to the charter of values of Unsa and to the fight against the far right and its ideas”, as well as “their autonomy in their expression and their action”, in particular “vis -to-vis the Alliance union”. The first concerned sweep away this assertion. “We are not going to point out who from Pierre, Paul or Jacques wrote this press release”, annoys Thierry Clair, deputy secretary general of Unsa-Police, who says he wrote it “in a very particular context”, before all addressed to the profession.
“A text distributed in all police departments evoked the right of withdrawal, and invited the police to lay down their weapons. Our press release was intended to remind them of their duty”, he says. No problem with the initial text, then? “Terms are problematic, in particular ‘harmful’ and ‘dog bed'”, is willing to admit Thierry Clair. Fault confessed is half redressed ? In its motion, the office of Unsa announces that a union commission mandated to “verify the commitments requested” will examine the case of Unsa-Police. Next meeting: at the union’s national office in September.