JEROME GILLES / NurPhoto via AFP
Sophie Binet (CGT) and Marylise Léon, during a demonstration in June 2024. (Illustration photo)
POLITICS – The torpor of August took off in trade union organizations. By sending them in the middle of summer preparatory documents relating to the 2026 budget draft, François Bayrou rekindled the anger of the power stations, already annoyed by the tracks that the Prime Minister had presented in mid-July.
Easter Monday and May 8 or others, whatever the days, we hammer the government, as long as the return for the State revolves around 4.2 billion euros. The guidance document transmitted to the social partners is formal: the finance bill examined in the fall will well be the abolition of public holidays, free to unions to exchange until September 30 at the latest to find out which ones.
A kind of outstretched hand … well left to be rejected. “The CFTC will not participate in this debate”decided on BFMTV on Sunday, August 10, its president Cyril Chabanier. The representative disputes as much the profitability of such a measure – due to losses linked to the drop in consumption – as “The angle of attack” government. The measures, he believes should endeavor to increase the activity rate of under 25 and over 55, currently below average. “The central problem is not to work more people who already have a job”he insists. An opinion taken up by Denis Gravouil, Confederate CGT secretary in charge of employment, on BFMTV this Monday, August 11: “There are only losers among employees. (…) Whether these two days or others, it is the very principle of the removal of two days of rest that is scandalous. »»
From unemployment insurance to the medical sector
If the measure on public holidays has crystallized attention and is largely rejected by the French, it is not the only one to indignant unions. The draft revision of the unemployment insurance agreement was confirmed and specified by the Prime Minister in a framing letter dated August 8: the government asks the social partners there to reach an agreement by November 15, with the objective of generating 2 to 2.5 billion euros in savings per year on average between 2026 and 2029, and 4 from 2030.
Except that the last unemployment insurance agreement was completed in the fall of 2024, with new rules allowing to generate 2.3 billion euros in saving over four years, according to a calculation of the Unédic. These provisions, obtained in pain, only entered into force. And at the idea of already putting the subject back on the table, the unions say no. “Seven months later, economic forecasts are significantly identical. There is therefore no legal justification to require a new negotiation ”cracked the inter -union in a press release published on August 9.
The other provisions of the budget do not find more thanks to their eyes. On August 8, it was the CGT which went up to the niche on the increase in medical franchises. While three draft decrees were sent two days earlier by the executive at the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM), the CGT denounced a “Unjust, brutal, and deeply anti -social measure, which confirms once again that the country’s recovery will be, according to him, will be on the back of the most fragile. »» At the initiative of the CGT, FO, CFTC and UNSA, general assemblies are being prepared for a view to a “United strike from all the public assistance-the Paris hôpitals”the unions announced.
See you on September 1st
Two years after the pension reform, the draft budget of the Bayrou government resurrected the inter -union. On July 22, it was together that CGT, Force Ouvrière, CFDT, CFTC, CFE-CGC, UNSA, Solidaires and FSU launched a petition to oppose the government’s tracks. Three weeks after its launch, this 316,000 signatures had this Monday.
In parallel, the trade union organizations met in September to “Examine together the means to act to counter this new access to brutality towards society and the world of work”said the press release. “Everything is on the table” et “There is still a good chance that a day of mobilization is planned”anticipates Cyril Chabanier.
On the government side during this time, the time is for (attempted) pedagogy. This, while according to an Ifop for LCI survey, 72 % of French people questioned consider “Inequitable” the efforts claimed by the government. A criticism that François Bayrou refuses “To hear”according to his own words. All the elements are gathered for a boiling fall and the pot has already started to heat.