Elisabeth Borne is “someone quite frank, quite direct, who knows his files well, but who never gives up an inch of ground on the subjects we have had in debate”, estimated François Hommeril, president of the CFE-CGC, on franceinfo on Tuesday May 17. He was speaking the day after the appointment of the former Minister of Labor as Prime Minister.
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What François Hommeril retains “perhaps with a little bitterness”it is the reform of unemployment insurance. “She finally had no room for maneuver and I wonder if it was her or if it was the government and the President of the Republic who left her none.”
franceinfo: What memory do you have of Elisabeth Borne?
Francois Hommeril: The memory of someone quite frank, quite direct, who knows his files well, but who never gives up an inch of ground on the subjects that we had in debate. She’s tough in business, but we’re not easy either. What I remember perhaps with a little bitterness is that, ultimately, on the subjects on which there was much opposition, in particular the reform of unemployment insurance, she had no room for maneuver . I wonder if it was her or if it was the government and the President of the Republic who left her none. We were clearly in disagreement on the reform of unemployment insurance because it has always very officially presented the spirit of its law as based on the principle that the unemployed had to be forced to return to work. As if people who are deprived of employment were doing so for pleasure. It is on this principle that we have a lot of opposition.
Pension reform will be your fight of the year?
Today, as it has arisen, we are going to fight it! It has become a political object in itself. I hear : “We must make reform, the mother of reforms.” That does not make any sense ! The pension system today is not in danger. The report of the Pensions Orientation Council says it very clearly: in the long term, in the medium term and in the long term, the system is perfectly secure. They are therefore in fact coming towards us with a reform that is not at all balanced. It is a reform to go and take resources in pensions and finance other devices. On this, we are not going to agree because we consider at the CFE-CGC that if there is a need to mobilize new resources for new expenditure, it is necessary to address all the parties that constitute the economic resources and not just hit the pensioners.
Does the fact that a woman is appointed to Matignon change anything for the unions?
It is believed that being a woman in society today is a handicap, in politics and in business. Everything proves it today in terms of career development. But being a woman is not a particular virtue. We will therefore work with her as with anyone else, hoping that she will respect us and that she will open up spaces for dialogue and co-construction.
Does a little less testosterone around the table change the negotiations?
Yes, we think that is changing. It’s all about balance. We have nevertheless made great efforts in our union organization to integrate women at the highest level into the governing bodies. And it’s true, I can testify, it changes things. It is necessary everywhere to be able to respect this balance, which many companies today do not do. The glass ceiling exists everywhere. Today, making a career for a woman in the company is much more difficult than for a man. It depends on the companies and the economic sectors, but the machinery for repressing women’s careers is still well at work.