After the pension reform, the inter-union does not want to “return to the union routine of before”

There will be a before and after pension reform. This is in any case the wish of the inter-union which, after having shown a united front during the entire mobilization sequence between January and June, wants to continue on this path. “We do not want to return to the union routine of before,” confided the general secretary of the CFDT Marylise Léon in a joint interview with her CGT counterpart Sophie Binet, granted this Sunday for the first issue of La Tribune Dimanche .

“The question of pensions is not resolved, but the mobilization has changed the situation,” believes the boss of the first French union. “Between us, the unspoken words have been lifted. We embrace our differences more,” adds Laurent Berger’s successor, all in her desire to display a face of unity. Questioned by La Tribune on Sunday alongside her counterpart, Sophie Binet is on the same wavelength, emphasizing the advantages of this strategy. “It changes negotiations with employers and with the government. They can no longer choose their interlocutors as it suits them, since we are united. We come up together on subjects, even if of course there are disagreements and differences in the approach,” explains the former principal education advisor (CPE), who took over as head of the CGT central in March in Philippe Martinez.

This union cohesion is in any case symbolized by the day of strikes and demonstrations on October 13, organized by the inter-union under the slogan “Against austerity, for wages and gender equality”. For Sophie Binet, this mobilization, which could affect transport, health or even education, “will make it possible to obtain progress before October 16 and the social conference” promised by Emmanuel Macron.

A social conference, focused on low wages and “branches below the minimum wage”, from which the unions expect a lot. “This conference cannot be a meeting for nothing,” says Marylise Léon, repeating her wish to “sanction” companies “which do not play the game” on salary increases. For example by removing “contribution exemptions”. In the same vein, Sophie Binet puts forward the CGT's proposal to “condition the 200 billion euros of public aid that businesses benefit from each year”. As well as that of “indexing salaries to prices”.

Invited this Sunday at midday on the program “Political Questions” on France Inter, the boss of the Montreuil power plant estimated that the indexation of salaries on prices was “the only effective mechanism to maintain the power of purchase". “We are going to ask for binding measures. There is no question that we will come out of this conference with still great announcement and communication effects,” she said.