Union calls for October protests
It says urgent action is needed to help workers and is also petitioning against the ratification of the EU budget pact
UNION leader Bernard Thibault has raised an “alarm” over the current situation with regard to work.
The head of one of the biggest unions, CGT, is calling for demonstrations on October 9 “in defence of industrial jobs” and is organising an information campaign and petitions against the government’s plan to put the EU budgetary pact into French law.
Following a meeting of CGT chiefs, he said that there had been a “major deterioration of the situation” since a conference on work that was held in July. He said this confirmed the union’s view at the conference that the government was not taking sufficient action to face up to the “urgency concerning work, notably as regards restructuring”.
The unionists are “impatient” to see measures equal to the situation, he said.
With regard to the EU treaty, he said they would be encouraging workers to join them in rejecting it by distributing material in workplaces. Some left-wing politicians have said a referendum is needed on it.
Referring to ongoing negotiations over job security, Mr Thibault said there may be irreconcilable differences between themselves and employers’ body Medef.
The latter favours Sarkozy’s idea of “competitivity-employment agreements”, by which employers of businesses facing economic pressures could ask employees to accept different conditions (hours, salary etc) to those in their contract or in the collective agreements for their type of work. The CGT rejects the idea.
Work Minister Michel Sapin says he plans to send out a document in two weeks to the unions, setting out his ideas for an official relaunch of the debate on work.
Photo: Kenji-Baptiste Oikawa
