“We are firm on our demands”, indicates Force Ouvrière

“The atmosphere was republican. The Prime Minister knew what we came to tell her. We are firm on our demands”, declared Tuesday, May 16 on franceinfo Michel Beaugas, confederal secretary of Force Ouvrière, after his meeting with Elisabeth Borne at Matignon. Force Ouvrière and the CFDT were received within the framework of bilateral meetings pending the 14th day of demonstrations against the pension reform which they demand the withdrawal. This Wednesday, it will be the turn of the CFTC, the CGT and the CFE-CGC.

franceinfo: What was the atmosphere during this meeting with the Prime Minister?

Michel Beaugas: The atmosphere was republican. The Prime Minister knew what they had come to tell her. We are firm on our demands. The exchange was courteous but firm on each other’s positions. We have already asked for the withdrawal of the pension reform or in any case its shelving in order to be able to discuss the real issues, that is to say employment, the employment of young people, of seniors, but also the increase in wages in the private or in the public sector. Our system is based on contributions, which are themselves based on wages, and the more wages are increased, the better balance we will have in our pension system.

What did the Prime Minister say to you?

On the pension reform, she recalled the position of the government. On the increase in wages, she sent us back to collective bargaining as well as on the employment of seniors. In fact, the government wants us to enter into negotiations with the employers on the major subjects, a little by discarding it on the social partners on what it failed to do before the implementation of this pension reform. . On wages, the index point in the public service has been frozen for too long and he was told that aid to companies had to be conditional. It cannot be free, aid cannot be distributed to shareholders. It must serve to improve employment in this country. We have submitted a whole list of demands to the Prime Minister on vocational training, unemployment insurance, but the prerequisite is indeed the withdrawal of this reform.

Elisabeth Borne calls for the opening of dialogue?

The dialogue that we have been offered is not really a dialogue with the government, it is rather with employers. We were asked if we were ready to participate in multilateral meetings, but what we said was that for us as long as there is the pension reform, we are not yet ready to go and put ourselves around a table to discuss and negotiate with the government. We must first withdraw this reform and then eventually we will see. I remind you that there is a call from the intersyndicale for a demonstration and a strike on June 6, then there is a bill tabled by a parliamentary group which calls for the repeal of the reform and any meeting before these two dates, June 6 and June 8, is premature for us. The inter-union is solid and if there must be a decision after these two dates, we will take it in the inter-union.