Pensions: Unions prepare for confrontation
Tension rose a notch on Friday between the executive and the unions, less than two weeks of mobilization against the pension reform on September 7. "We have entered a power carried by the government," critic Jacques Voisin, chairman of the CFTC. "We will have no lights before the Assembly debate, agrees Marcel Grignard, number two of the CFDT. The government does not want to give grist to the mill workers before mobilization. "The Elysee confirmed:" We will not reveal anything because the unions would benefit from our proposals to demolish in order to mobilize more. "
Eric Woerth's proposal to hold further discussions before considering the text on Sept. 7 failed to calm the ardor of unions to fight. "The minister's letter has also stiffened relations", says Jacques Voisin.The CGT will not lend itself to exchanges which are lip service to the thesis of social dialogue is still alive, so that no real negotiation is still the order of the day ", said Thursday its secretary General, Bernard Thibault.
For him, it will be to decide on the streets: "We're heading for a big day, perhaps even unique, and I can not imagine it will not affect the head of state," he said on RTL radio Friday. The boss of the CGT also judge Nicolas Sarkozy "much more feverish" at this time. In his eyes, his decision not to restrict the device housing assistance for students shows. "This is the topic that would put the students in the street," says a spokesman of the majority. "It's a sign, says Alain Olive, secretary general of the UNSA.Nicolas Sarkozy must remember that this is not the unions that have obtained the withdrawal of the controversial First Employment Contract in 2006, but the presence in the processions of schoolchildren and students. He is wary of a mass effect from them. "
"All the shots are allowed"
Alain Olive, too, considers that "the Elysee concessions are available to show that the president is listening, but only at the margin, on the issues left open (career long, arduous and polypensionnés) before summer . "The Head of State realizes that there are inequalities in policy and that the sum of these injustices becomes problematic," adds Marcel Grignard. Forgery, replica near the Head of State: "Nicolas Sarkozy is serene.He is less worried about the outcome of the reform for the good economic indicators released in recent days show that cuts to the budgets of state and social will be less painful than he thought. But he was more afraid of the reaction of the French on the issue of expenditure on pensions. "Even at the Elysee opinion:" We expect a large-scale mobilization, so it is unlikely that changes our text if so. "
Jean-Claude Mailly, general secretary of FOR, raises the bar "more than two million protesters. Either a higher level than at the last day of mobilization on June 24 "People will have something else in mind that the pension reform, warns Jacques Voisin: laborious recovery, employment, discipline …" But also the case Woerth-Bettencourt."Everyone knows that the reform will be polluted by his supposed status in question," Bernard Thibault launched yesterday, when he had thus far refrained from comment. A little phrase that has infuriated the Head of State, who "has now concluded that all shots are allowed," slips one of his relatives.
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