Move along, nothing to see ! The shepherds of Nupes assure it: between them and the unions, there would not be the beginning of the beginning of half a sheet of cigarette paper. It could not be otherwise as the battle against pension reform has only just begun. “The slightest crack between us would sign the victory of Emmanuel Macron”, alert Eric Coquerel, deputy of La France insoumise and president of the Finance Committee at the Assembly. The million people in the streets of the metropolis, on January 19, swell the chest of pride, Nupes as unions. Yet the united front is a priesthood.
Everyone walks on eggshells. For a few years now, the trade unions have had a syrupy spirit, the fault of a vertiginous drop in membership, of the balance of power which is stretched between the leaders of each central body, and the latter often overwhelmed by their radical bases. Barely seven years ago, in 2016, in full El Khomri law, the crisis of meaning was at its peak and 3 out of 5 French people said they no longer trusted them. Three years later, the situation has almost reversed and 56% rely on them. A shift that dates from 2019, in the light of the first pension conflict of the Macron era. “We measure the path traveled, long and tedious, says a union leader, who is worried about the future: no one does not want someone to arrive unexpectedly to ruin the work done.”
This “someone” has a name: Mélenchon. He is not the type to be moved by a few omelettes. Its agenda is not that of the CGT, nor that of the CFDT. He did not take a dim view of the day when Laurent Berger’s reformist corporation stole the place of France’s leading trade union from the nose and mustache of Philippe Martinez. The latter and the Insoumis in chief have been cold for several months. “We don’t talk anymore, laments the CGTiste. He spends your time insulting me on his blog.” The water in the gas, between the two, would be above all political, analyzes Manuel Bompard, the number one of LFI: “We disagree with the idea that everything on the street is the responsibility of the unions. We recognize their legitimacy to call a strike, but our movement is also a tool for popular mobilization.”
“No one is fooled”
The will of the Insoumis to mobilizing the masses in the streets is seen by the unions as harmful and counter-productive competition. Latest example: the gathering of youth movements on January 21. Officially launched at the call of the youth unions – except the Unef, the first of them – it was considered “the march of Mélenchon” by the unions. “No one is fooled. We have all seen Louis Boyard [NDLR : député LFI et ancien syndicaliste lycéen] go see each other to organize all this“, we plague around Philippe Martinez.
With the other unions, the atmosphere is less suspicious. According to some rebels, we should even thank Eric Coquerel for having “toured the meals” in recent months, “the only one who is in permanent contact with Martinez, Berger and the others”, blows an LFI deputy. In December, a few days before Christmas, he spoke with the CGTiste and, at the beginning of January, with Berger. A relative of Coquerel smooths the angles, even if it means angering Mélenchon: “We will support each of the mobilizations, including those of young people like January 21. But that is not the pivot of the fight. Everyone must understand that it is unions to set the pace.”
The other Nupes partners are watching the unions carefully. Environmentalists, who have little trade union culture, have multiplied the rapprochements with the CGT in particular, on the initiative of their new leader, Marine Tondelier. “There can sometimes be a rush by the rebels to impose their schedule, when the logic should first be to support the unions,” said PS deputy Arthur Delaporte. The future of the united front in the battle against the pension reform will depend less on the state of form of the unions or the Nupes than on the vague desires of the agenda of Mélenchon and his rebels.