A few days before the All Saints holidays, the employees are called upon to stop work on Tuesday, October 18 and to demonstrate for a rise in wages and against the requisitions of strikers in the refineries. Many sectors are concerned: the civil service, energy, public transport. The government is therefore, more than ever, under pressure on the issue of wages.
>> Strike: follow the national mobilization of Tuesday, October 18 live
The least that can be said is that the executive handles the subject with great care. Emmanuel Macron deliberately stays away from this debate, and his doctrine is clear: it is not up to the President of the Republic to decree a salary increase. He had also explained it during the debate between two rounds of the last presidential election against Marine Le Pen: “I would not like our compatriots to think that a president or a president of the Republic can decide what is on the payroll. It is up to the employer to do it! You are not going to make the salaries, Mrs. Le Pen…”
So much for the theory, which is illustrated concretely when Emmanuel Macron explains that wage negotiations in the TotalEnergies refineries are a private company. This principled position of the Head of State does not prevent differences of opinion within the government itself. Thus, let us note a last example to date, thus when the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, makes his little music heard, estimating Tuesday morning that there is “salary problemtherefore calling on unions and employers to agree on a general increase.
“Gérald Darmanin plays the card of social fiber and the popular”, deciphers an adviser to the executive. A position far removed from that of Bruno Le Maire, who is asking for wage increases from companies that can, not a general increase, because the Minister of the Economy fears an inflationary spiral, an increase in the cost of labor and therefore difficulties for smaller companies to maintain these increases over time.
Until then, the government preferred bonuses and targeted aid: tariff shield, tripling of the Macron bonus, rebate at the pump, etc. The government also claims an increase in the index point for civil servants of 3.5% effective since July 1st. A firm and definitive increase: in other words, no review clause for this year, especially since the executive is waiting for the professional elections in early December to see what happens.
But the subject is very flammable, “wages can federate”, convinced a pillar of the left in the Assembly. From Jean-Luc Mélenchon to the National Rally, obviously passing by Philippe Martinez, the leader of the CGT who is calling for an increase in the minimum wage to 2,000 euros, the subject is consensus. It is probably for this reason that the government is absolutely trying to avoid having to organize a large social conference.