LAurent Berger’s point of view is clear: there will be no retirement at 64 or 65 with him. “The only pension project on the table today is raising the legal retirement age. We are fighting it resolutely,” said Berger before he was confirmed in office as head of the largest French trade union CFDT by almost 97 percent of the members on Friday.
The CFDT’s positioning gives a foretaste of the headwinds French President Emmanuel Macron will face in his second term, even if he can secure a majority in parliament. It is true that the workers’ associations, as in Germany, have been fighting for years against the loss of importance: the money in the strike fund is no longer as loose as it used to be, there are fewer work stoppages, and only one in ten employees is a union member.
But even during Macron’s first term in office, the CFDT & Co. had shown what they are still capable of: two and a half years ago, hundreds of thousands of French people took to the streets to demonstrate against the planned pension reform, which was fiercely opposed by the unions. The protest had an effect and the project ended up being shelved. Now the conflict is threatening to recur: Macron has made pension reform a priority and wants to gradually increase the entry age from 62 to 65.
Life expectancy is increasing
Conflict is programmed. So far, the CFDT has been willing to recognize that “increasing life expectancy may justify an increase in the average retirement age”. However, at last week’s annual meeting, two-thirds of members voted in favor of removing this passage from the program.
The vote weighs heavily because the CFDT is still considered moderate. The more radical, second-largest French trade union, the CGT, refuses to work longer anyway. Her boss Philippe Martinez has repeatedly been combative in recent weeks. “The union front exists, all unions are against raising the statutory retirement age,” said the man with the distinctive moustache.
Macron has long since declared “social dialogue” to be a top priority. He recently invited union leaders to the Élysée Palace to discuss the big issues of the day. He also announced that after the parliamentary elections, he would seek larger-scale discussions with various social “forces” in a new “National Council for the Re-establishment”.
But the contrasts between the “powers” of the country remain unmistakable. Compromises in tax policy – the economy is pushing for further relief – could be difficult. However, the potential for conflict is greatest in pension policy. “All countries in Europe work longer hours than we do,” said employer boss Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. The French pension system, whose annual costs of around 13.5 percent of economic output are well above the OECD average, is said to be too generous. The need for reform is confirmed by the forecast of a state expert council, according to which the pension fund, which is largely financed by contributions, is threatened with an annual deficit in the tens of billions if there is no later retirement. From the trade unions’ point of view, however, the deficits are only temporary. They are disappearing with the demographic imbalance created by baby boomers.
The fronts are hardened. “We remain cautious,” said CGT Secretary General Boris Plazzi of the FAZ with a view to the planned “National Council”. Macron has promised a lot in the election campaign so far, but seems opportunistic. Unlike a spokeswoman for Economics Minister Bruno Le Maire, who speaks of good cooperation, not least in the corona pandemic, the CGT Secretary General believes that the dialogue between the government and the trade unions has continued to deteriorate in recent years. In the end, however, it was his boss Martinez who was the only union boss who turned down the invitation to the Élysée Palace and mockingly spoke of an “election campaign lunch”.
The coming weeks will show how much dialogue is possible. Macron wants to start working on the pension reform after the meeting in the “National Council”. It should then come into force “from the summer of 2023”. A compromise offer is to raise the entry age “only” to 64 instead of 65. However, CFDT boss Berger recently made it clear that one way or another, pension reform is not the “urgency of the hour”.
