François Hollande salutes a “tenacious” union leader

“Laurent Berger is tenacious”union leader “did not give in on his positions”greets Wednesday, June 21 on France Inter the former President of the Republic François Hollande, while the Secretary General of the CFDT gives way to Marylise Léon.

>> CFDT: after handing over, Laurent Berger wants to “continue to transform the world” in his “modest place”

Laurent Berger had been at the head of the union since 2012. And for the former head of state, the leader of the CFDT has always “said from the start what he could not tolerate”, staring at her red lines. This did not mean, specifies François Hollande, that “the State had to submit or submit to this red line”. “We knew her and I knew that if we went further, there would be a distance from the CFDT”he adds.

“A kind of stubbornness” by Emmanuel Macron on pensions

The former President of the Republic thus recalls that during the mobilization against the Labor bill carried by Myriam El Khomri, in 2016, Laurent Berger refused any “provision which would make a scale mandatory for the years of industrial tribunal compensation”. “When, in the first version, it had not been respected, the CFDT was in the street with the other trade union organizations which contested the project, and when there was a return to what was, for him, acceptable, he supported the text”reports François Hollande.

He insists on the legitimacy acquired by the CFDT and its latest positions on pension reform. On this point, Laurent Berger’s red line remains “a postponement of age” statutory retirement. François Hollande therefore accuses his successor, Emmanuel Macron, of having “lack of lucidity” in the face of trade union organizations and their demands. In particular, he denounces a “kind of stubbornness” from the Head of State to “nothing to give in on age” departure. François Hollande regrets on France Inter that Laurent Berger felt “with the trade unions, dismissed, despised”.