After Force Ouvrière and the U2P, it is the CGT’s turn to slam the door: Sophie Binet announced on Wednesday evening the departure of her organization of consultations on pensions launched by the Prime Minister in January, after the repeated refusal of the latter to return to the 62 years. “The Prime Minister and the employers unfortunately definitively buried this conclave. And it is very serious because the Prime Minister had committed to that these discussions were ‘without Totem, nor taboo’,” justified the Patroness of the CGT, after the vote of its bodies. Consequently, “the CGT decided this evening to leave these consultations and call employees to mobilize” by joining in particular the processions of retirees scheduled for Thursday.
After having aroused a lot of hope with the unions, giving them the opportunity, for the first time in more than two years, to renegotiate the decree reform of pensions which brought the starting age from 62 to 64 years in 2023, François Bayrou disappointed the left opposition as the unions. His declarations Sunday closing the door on the return of the 62 years, repeated Tuesday and Wednesday before the Parliament finished causing the ire of the union centers which oppose him an end of not receiving.
In front of the Senate, François Bayrou assured that he had “never (…) immersed” in the debate of the social partners. “I simply recalled that it was necessary to set as a goal as the return to balance (of the pension system) in 2030” and judged “that in my eyes, we could not return to 62, remove the pension reform and regain financial balance,” he argued.
Age, “the heart of the reactor”
The Prime Minister “broke the contract”, “changed the rules of the game” and “does not see where the problem is”, denounced Marylise Léon on Tuesday morning, n ° 1 of the CFDT, on BFMTV/RMC. “We want to discuss age, the starting age. This is the heart of the reactor. This is the reason why we mobilized and for which we wanted to take over the thread of the discussions,” she said. Under these conditions, the leader warned that she “frees himself” now “from the government’s letter” and intends to negotiate “with those who really want to work” to open “another” conclave.
But the latter has lead in the wing: Force Ouvrière had slammed the door from the first session on February 27, judging that consultation turned to the “masquerade” after the requirement of François Bayrou to restore the financial balance of the pension system in 2030, asking to find 6.6 billion additional savings compared to what had been asked for the social partners in January.
“Wear” and “arduous”
Thursday, only three trade union organizations (CFDT, CFTC, CFE-CGC) and two employers’ organizations (Medef and CPME) will thus be at the table of discussions from 2 pm to speak of “professional wear and arduousness”. But “with the (last) twists and turns, I’m afraid there is change,” Pascale Coton, negotiator for the CFTC, told AFP.
On positions diametrically opposed to those of the unions, the smallest of the three employers’ organizations, the U2P (craftsmen, traders and liberal professions) also left negotiations on Tuesday. This organization believes that the balance of the pensions regime “will require repelling the legal starting age beyond 64 years”, except for difficult professions.
The MEDEF, the first employers’ first organization, said on Wednesday by the voice of its president Patrick Martin wanting to “give his chance” to the discussion, however, believing that “all the social partners, the a fortiori policies, must take into account this situation of public finances which becomes critical”.