FEAR of being sacked because you are a union member is the main reason union membership in France is one of the lowest in Europe, says Maryse Dumas, a leading member of the CGT (Confédération Générale du Travail).
Mrs Dumas, a member of the CGT’s executive bureau confédéral, said that despite unions' high media profile, membership was poor compared to many European countries, at just 10% of employees.
The CGT, which has 700,000 members, has declined in membership from more than five million when it reformed after a ban on unions during the Second World War (the splitting off of new unions is partly responsible).
"It is hard to say whether the CGT or CFDT has the biggest membership," said Mrs Dumas.
"What's for sure is neither has enough. Our membership was largely from big industrial companies and in the 1980s there was a crisis in industry, with major restructuring.
“We’re progressing again but things aren’t as they were.
“France continues to lose 20,000 jobs in industry a year but new jobs are being created in services and small and medium-sized businesses."
However, she said, fear was probably the biggest deterrent for not joining a union. "In surveys it has been found that the biggest reason is worry about reprisals from bosses. In most workplaces there is no union branch at all.
“On the one hand there is not as much incentive as in some countries as there are no direct work benefits to union membership - everyone gets the same salary increases and rights - but sometimes people feel they will actually lose rights if they join because there is a strong union repression.
“Sometimes the employer tries to find a motive to sack the employee once they have joined a union.
“They never admit this but a person who has previously been considered competent will be accused of making mistakes and the employer puts psychological pressure on them.
In the last few years we have taken a number of cases to Europe and have won large damages that prove how significant the discrimination can be.”
Mrs Dumas, 54, formerly worked in administration for the French postal service. She has worked full time for the union since 1980.
She became secretary general of the CGT's postal workers section in 1988 - the first time a woman had held this top union role within postal work.
She was elected to the bureau confédéral in 1995 and has since devoted herself to central office work. She said: "As the first female general secretary for postal workers I was very aware of my responsibility - when a woman gains a responsible post she has to blaze a trail.
“She has an obligation to succeed. If it goes well people will still say she is an exception, that not all women could do it, but if she fails it is because women are incapable.
“It was a heavy responsibility but at the same time I was supported. I was not alone in my struggle.
“I continue to fight for the right balance of men and women in responsible CGT positions.
“There are some areas of work where there are more male than female workers and it is natural there are more men in the posts, but where there are more women it should be the other way round.
“At national direction level we now have equality of numbers. There have always been women in senior posts in the CGT but it is good we have more now. It makes it more democratic."
Mrs Dumas said that the grass-roots level for most union members was a workplace branch, which, in the case of the CGT, will belong to one of 30 federations for different areas of work and to a departmental union.
Large federations include ones for workers in energy, local government, the metal industry, the chemical industry, post and telecoms, commerce and services, and railways.
If a worker wants to join a union and there are no branches in their workplace, they can make contact with one of their choice at departmental or national federation level, fill out a form and start paying dues.
“We see if we can help them develop union activity in their workplace but without putting them in danger. We try to take precautions - for example, to get seven or eight to join at the same time to avoid reprisals."
Mrs Dumas added: "Joining a union is a chance to be informed of your rights and see they are respected - and to show solidarity with other workers. Union membership is important if you want to negotiate with employers, to improve working conditions, hours or salaries.
All social progress at work in this country has been achieved though unions."
Mrs Dumas added: "We have one of the highest rates of employees benefiting from collective conventions negotiated by unions with the employers - 98% - because they are automatically applied to all workers. In some countries only members of the union which negotiated it benefit."
The GCT is one of five unions with legal "representative" status, along with CFDT (Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail), FO (Force Ouvrière), CFTC (Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens) and the CFE-CGC (Confédération Française de l'Encadrement - Confédération Générale des Cadres).
These have the right to present candidates at professional elections (to choose workers' representatives within a company) and to visit any workplace to talk and distribute literature.
They are present at all negotiations with employers, at branch, departmental or national level.
Until 2004, agreements could be reached if just one of the five accepted, Mrs Dumas said. "It was undemocratic and we fought for years for that to change.
“Now the majority of the unions have to agree but we and the CFDT feel this is still unsatisfactory.
“Those unions which represent the majority of the workers in the workplace should have to agree. The bosses and the smaller unions don't want this because they are afraid of losing power."
Unions have only been allowed in France since 1884 while the right to strike legally, without fear of dismissal, has existed since 1945.
Mrs Dumas said the unions would prefer to talk rather than strike. "In this country there is no tradition of negotiation and consultation - things have to happen by conflict, which is a shame.
“This is also reflected in French politics - the government thinks they can proceed without consultation and so do employers, who think negotiation takes away their unilateral power.
“There should be negotiation, with proper rules followed. When that doesn't happen there are major conflicts."
Recently the CGT was the only one of the main unions to hold out against the government's planned reform of the work market.
Mrs Dumas said: "The proposals make it easier and faster for employers to fire people, ignoring current employees' rights."
The union was also involved in recent rail and air traffic controllers' strikes. Mrs Dumas said: "For the strikes to work they must have public support, so we must avoid causing too much disruption.
“There is always a fine balance to be found. One area where we are making advances is on salaries.
“The public can understand our concerns because people are preoccupied about their purchasing power. We know strikes can't last too long and we can't just do anything we like.
“Also, strikes are expensive to the strikers, who are not paid when they are on strike.
“A strike really is a last resort to make ourselves heard."
She added: "Public opinion can support us at the start of a strike but not after 48 hours. At other times it does not support us at the start but does later once the reasons are better understood."
Mrs Dumas said the unions faced "a president and government very much linked to big business, and their objective is to weaken the unions."
She added: "It is not as simple as they think. Each time they have tried to force something through they've hit a brick wall.
“This was already an objective of the de Villepin administration and we won on the issue of the Contrat Première Embauche (contract with minimal job security for young people).
“Nicolas Sarkozy thought being president was going to be a cruise down a boulevard but he's realised it's not going to be as easy as that. Now he's realised direct confrontation doesn't work, he's pretending to be on our side, which is far from being the case."
The CGT sees the recent Attali commission report on economic growth as unacceptable - mainly because Mr Attali said its measures should be taken as a whole.
"Its thrust is towards a kind of liberalisation that we oppose," Mrs Dumas said.
Asked how France could balance economic growth with workers' rights, she said: "Even when things do not go as we would like, we need to try to see that workers are not sacrificed, especially those who are the most vulnerable."
CGT action in March included a day of action related to working conditions.
The union has been asking that those who work in the harshest conditions, who typically have short life expectancies, be allowed to retire earlier.
The aim was to force employers to negotiate. A day of protests was also planned on March 29 related to pensions. Mrs Dumas said a million retired employees in France were living below the poverty line.
Some commentators have seen the action as an echo back to the unrest of 1968.
Mrs Dumas said: "Things never happen twice in the same way - important advances came out of 1968 - an increase in the Smic (minimum wage) of 30%, and the right to have union branches inside companies.
“We see it as an important reference point and let's hope we can build on it with new rights for the next 40 years.”
