The deputies started Monday, January 3 the examination of the bill on the vaccine pass, with very tense debates. Eco guest of franceinfo, Laurent Berger, secretary general of the CFDT, supports the new health measures to fight against the epidemic: “Vaccination is not a restriction of freedom, it is an ability to get out of the epidemic.”
According to the union leader, “we still remain a country of freedoms” and “all these measures, when the epidemic is overcome, must be behind us“. But for him,”the risk which weighs today on the population, in terms of health, is important“. The one who is at the head of the first French union in terms of membership believes that”it’s the dead who say it, it’s the saturation of hospitals that says it and it requires a little collective effort“.
The vaccination pass will also apply to some of the employees. If the project is adopted, from January 15, restaurant servers, train controllers or librarians will have to be vaccinated if they want to continue working. This measure does not shock Laurent Berger: “This already existed, in a way, since there was already the health pass for professions in contact with the public. What we did not want was a health pass for all workers.”
The leader of the CFDT is more worried about the situation in the hospital, where patients are flocking again: “I don’t know if the officers will hold out. They are worn out, tired, angry at times, when the patients they are fighting for have chosen not to be vaccinated.”
“I am very worried about the public hospital. I am making an emergency appeal.”
Laurent Berger, secretary general of the CFDTon franceinfo
Beyond the hospital, many employees, tested positive, will have to be absent this winter, to isolate themselves or to be treated. Those who remain will sometimes have to work in a reduced workforce, including in so-called “second line” trades. Laurent Berger calls for more consideration for these workers “agrifood, security, cleanliness, commerce, distribution, home care“:”They did not receive salary recognition. And there, we will ask them again to hold the country? For some of them there is a form of loathing.“For these employees, the union leader is urgently demanding”salary increases“.