It was the first meeting between the French government and the unions since the beginning of the year, and it ended in failure. When not even an hour had passed, the eight union leaders got up from the table. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, had just refused for the umpteenth time to withdraw the pension reform.
The unions have therefore maintained the call for this Thursday of new strikes and demonstrations. It is the eleventh day of protests since Borne presented the law in January, which will increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 years and will accelerate the requirement of 43 years of contributions to collect the full pension, instead of 41.
The result of the meeting indicates that, contrary to what President Emmanuel Macron expects, the opposition is not giving in. And this, despite the fact that the law has already been approved by Parliament and is now awaiting the opinion of the Constitutional Council, scheduled for April 14.
The trade unionists had accepted Borne’s invitation to the Matignon mansion, the seat of the government headquarters, but they had announced in advance that they were going with one sole purpose: to ask him to withdraw the law, or at least leave it in abeyance. The Prime Minister wanted to turn the page and talk to the social agents about the agenda for the coming months on the employment of the elderly and working conditions.
The meeting began at ten in the morning with a few words from Borne. Then the eight trade unionists intervened and each one asked the same thing to the prime minister: if she was willing to withdraw the reform. But the prime minister resumed speaking without answering the question. Then Laurent Berger, general secretary of the first union in France, the moderate CFDT, intervened. Berger insisted on knowing whether or not the reform would be withdrawn or suspended. The answer was no. And then the unions called the meeting over.
Borne stated after the meeting: “I have listened to each of the union organizations, I have listened to their disagreement on the increase of the age [de jubilacion] and I have repeated my conviction and that of this Government about the need for this reform”. He added: “I think this meeting marks an important stage.”
The prime minister sees the glass half full: the Government and the unions had not met since the beginning of January. During the entire legislative process, communication was cut off. But, even though the dialog returns, it doesn’t work.
Union unity is one of the novelties of the mobilization against the pension reform. Since 2010, when then-president Nicolas Sarkozy managed to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, the unions have not united.
What has changed is the position of Berger’s CFDT, traditionally prone to agreement and even to reforming pensions, although without raising the retirement age. The divorce between Berger and Macron is one of the keys to this crisis. One of the unknowns is how long the union front can be maintained once the president promulgates the law after the Constitutional ruling. The other is whether the government will be able to get Berger’s support for future initiatives after ignoring him during this reform.
