The secretary general of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, will pass the torch during a congress which begins Monday in Clermont-Ferrand. Three candidates are expected to succeed him.
His ultimate battle will be pension reform. At least as the boss of the CGT. Philippe Martinez, 61 years old at the beginning of April, will pass the torch of the general secretariat of the second largest French trade union organization during a congress organized in Clermont-Ferrand, from Monday 27 to Friday 31 March. In the spring, he had hoped that Marie Buisson, secretary general of the federation of education, research and culture of the CGT succeeds him.
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This candidacy is not unanimous. The secretary general of the Departmental Union of Bouches-du-Rhône, Olivier Mateu, also made his ambition known. And the name of Céline Verzeletti, co-secretary general of the Federal Union of State Trade Unions, is also blown by certain federations.
To designate a new secretary general, the delegates representing the different branches of the CGT will elect the executive commission, a kind of extended management (50 members). The office and its general secretary, who constitute the highest management body (10 members), will then be elected within this executive commission by the national confederal committee (130 members) composed of the general secretaries of the departmental unions and federations. Before this deadline, franceinfo returns to the profile of the three main candidates.
Marie Buisson, the chosen one of Philippe Martinez
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His journey. At 54, she is the general secretary of the Education Research Culture Federation (Ferc). A “small” federation, on the scale of the CGT, which counted in 2020-2021 “just over 25,000” members, she said. This daughter of a pharmaceutical industry executive and an adult trainer, born in Paris, worked odd jobs before resuming her studies and becoming a teacher in a vocational school. Inserted at the CGT since “twenty years”as she told the AEF, In May 2019, she joined the confederal executive commission, the expanded management body of the CGT, where she is responsible for issues related to ecological transition. She is best known for having represented the union within the “Never again” coalition, which brings together unions, associations and NGOs, in March 2020, with the desire to tackle social and environmental issues head on.
His line. Marie Buisson declares to AFP that she wants to make her union a “a tool for all employees in this country”and put issues related to ecological transition and gender equality at the heart of its priorities.
His supporters and opponents. Dubbed by the outgoing boss, she is also seen by some as the candidate who will steer the organization towards societal issues, to the detriment of social issues and the economy. Within the coalition “Never again”, an initiative which calls in particular for the cessation of public support for projects in the fossil fuel sector, it has drawn the wrath of some of the federations CGT industries. “THE industrialist and productivist software is still very present at the CGT, where nuclear energy is for example seen as a clean energy by many”, explains to franceinfo Karel Yon, sociologist of trade unionism and social movements, researcher at the CNRS. The way in which Philippe Martinez got involved in the “Never again” alliance, without consulting the internal authorities, also greatly offended these federations.
Some opponents of Philippe Martinez, including the boss of the powerful chemistry federation, Emmanuel Lépine, also criticize the candidate for her relative discretion, and for not having carried out “iconic struggles”. It is also one of the spearheads of the rapprochement of the CGT with the FSU, the leading education union. An initiative, too, criticized by part of the apparatus, which fears a “questioning the identity of the CGT”according to Karel Yon.
Céline Verzeletti, the choice of the big centrals
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His journey. She too has known years of “galley” before taking the prison administration exam and becoming a prison supervisor. At 54, Céline Verzeletti is now co-secretary general of the Federal Union of State Trade Unions (UFSE), which has around 50,000 union members. She has been a member of the confederal office since 2015, where she is in charge of Equality, Trade Union Freedoms and Coordination of struggles. Born in Le Havre, of a railway worker father, train driver and CGT activist, and a teacher mother, she was trained in social struggles by the Communist Youth. She still has her PCF card and advocates bringing the unions closer to the political sphere. She had participated in January in a march supported by insubordinate France, recalls BFMTV.
His line. Celine Verzeletti criticizes the verticality within the CGT and assures franceinfo that it wants to reintroduce a dose of “internal democracy”. With a protesting tradition, thea trade unionist also believes that “the main mode of action to obtain social conquests remains the renewable strike”. Finally, she considers that gender equality and ecology are “important topics, but they must not make invisible the essential conflict between the world of work and the interests of big business”. “We must fight the battle against the patriarchal system and the capitalist system head on”she says.
His supporters and opponents. Without being officially a candidate for the succession of Philippe Martinez, she appears to be the most able to bring together the CGT in the eyes of several powerful federations (railway workers, energy, part of that of health). “Her candidacy presents herself as a female alternative to Marie Buisson, chosen by Philippe Martinez”, notes Karel Yon. According to him, “some may put in their support for Céline Verzeletti the idea of a kind of old-fashioned CGT patriotism, from the time of a stronger proximity with the PCF”.
Olivier Mateu, the radical
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His journey. At 48, Olivier Mateu is a forester and departmental secretary of the CGT federation of Bouches-du-Rhône, one of the most powerful in France with nearly 35,000 members. Inscribed in the Communist Party at 14, he comes from a family of activists who fought Francoism in Spain. He grew up in Port-de-Bouc (Bouches-du-Rhône), one of the few towns in the department that is still communist, in the heart of an industrial-port complex where container ships block the horizon.
His line. He criticizes the participation of the CGT in the collective “Never again”, of which Marie Buisson is a figure, while ensuring that he is not climatosceptic. He is the holder of a hard line, as when he calls for the shortage of fuel in his department to protest against the pension reform. Or when he repeats that he does not support “neither Putin nor Zelensky”. “The current war is a war of one imperialism against another”he annoys with AFP. He thus defends the adhesion of the CGT of Bouches-du-Rhône to the World Federation of Trade Unions (WSF), classified very on the left, which the confederation left in 1995. “If you want us to bring in young people, women, men, you have to find a CGT on the offensive, a CGT that assumes itself, that does not apologize when it goes on television, closes on its demands”justifies to AFP this follower of punchlines.
His supporters and opponents. His candidacy did not meet all the conditions required by the statutes, assures a union source to franceinfo. But its validity will be decided during the congress. However, it seems unlikely that Olivier Mateu will win, notes Karel Yon, given his radical convictions. His desire to reintegrate the CGT into the World Federation of Trade Unions, in particular, is a request “which is not at all in the majority”.