Unions pull out of strike day
Differences of opinion surrounding strikes on June 17 see four major trade unions withdrawing from industrial action.
Four major trade unions have withdrawn from a planned day of strikes on June 17, citing differences of opinion in the 35-hour week debate.
Unions in the FO, UNSA, CFTC and CFE-CGC will not be joining members of the CGT and CFDT in the day of planned industrial action.
The secretary general of FO (Force Ouvriere) Jean-Claude Mailly (pictured) told Le Figaro that the CGT and CFDT had “gone too far” in agreeing to an experimental relaxation of the 35-hour working week.
He said his union had also called for a general strike, across all professions, to protest government reforms of pensions, which will see the number of years’ work needed to qualify for a full pension rise from 40 to 41.
Mr Mailly also said a proposed compromise between the CGT and CFDT unions and the government, over the way unions are represented in public organisations, would weaken the potency of the trade union movement.
Bernard Thibault, of the CGT, insisted that the proposed changes would make little real difference.
He told the Parisien-Aujourd’hui newspaper: “The agreement changes nothing.
“If these unions do not come out on strike, they are playing straight into the hands of the government.”
The proposed changes to the law regarding the 35-hour working week will be presented to the council of ministers on June 18, the day after the planned strike action.
Photo: AFP
