Strikes during the 2024 Olympics: Clément Beaune calls for “social agreements which provide for Olympic truces”

Former Minister of Transport who became a simple deputy again a month ago, Clément Beaune is still a voice that counts in the presidential majority. Guest of the show “Télématin” on France 2 this Wednesday morning, he called for an “Olympic truce” to avoid strikes during the Paris Olympics this summer. “It is time to have social agreements that provide for Olympic truces. We cannot afford in France to have Olympic and Paralympic Games which give this image of paralysis,” said the representative of the left wing of the macronie.

These declarations are a response to the threat of strikes in the public service during the Olympics agitated by the CGT - the leading union in the sector - last week. Its general secretary Sophie Binet said last Thursday that her union would file strike notices in April in the three branches of the public service (state, territorial, hospital), for the period covering the Olympic Games. The second union force in the public sector, Force Ouvrière, followed suit by announcing a strike notice running from March 19, the day of an inter-union mobilization for the salaries of public employees, to September 8.

Asked more specifically about transport, Clément Beaune assured that “everyone, including trade union organizations, (had) a sense of responsibility”. “My successor (at the Ministry of Transport, Patrice Vergriete, Editor's note), the large public operators, the SNCF and the RATP, are currently negotiating. I'm confident. We must work harder in the coming weeks to find social agreements,” insisted the former minister. “We have to work hard between now and June to find social agreements in companies,” he insisted.

Will these agreements necessarily involve exceptional bonuses? Yes, according to Clément Beaune. “It’s normal that in public services there are bonuses, aid, because there are hundreds of thousands of civil servants who will work much more than usual, giving up their leave. This is particularly the case for our police officers,” judged the Renaissance deputy from Paris.

His successor at the Ministry of Transport, Patrice Vergriete, was also confident about the social context expected during the Games. “I am absolutely not worried,” assured the current minister on France Inter at the end of February. “I come from a working-class culture and I do not believe for a single moment that workers, employees, unions, will endanger the image of France, the image of their company, in the eyes of the whole world.” “There will be no strike,” he said.

“The whole country wants there to be no strikes” during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Civil Service Minister Stanislas Guerini insisted last Saturday on Franceinfo. Like Clément Beaune, the president of the Games organizing committee Tony Estanguet also said he was in favor of a “social truce” during the event. “Yes, I want it, I want us to welcome the world in the best conditions and not spoil the party,” he declared in “Télématin” at the end of February.

In the public service, the CFDT, unlike the CGT, indicated that it had not planned “at this stage” to file a strike notice for the Olympic Games, assured Marylise on France 2 last Friday Léon, the general secretary of the confederation. “For the CFDT, there is no desire to spoil this festive moment of the Olympic Games. So all the more reason for employers (...) to be there and make efforts within the framework of the negotiations which are open,” argued the head of the first French union. Unsa, the fourth public sector union, also indicated that it was not currently calling for mobilization in the public service during the Olympics.

Note also that this idea of ​​“Olympic truce” is applied in the air sector, where the first controllers union (SNCTA) committed last September not to call a strike between now and September 2024. On the other hand, in Parisian public transport, the CGT of the RATP filed a strike notice in January running from February 5 to September 9, covering the period of the Olympics.