Towards a twist at the CGT? The surprise candidacy of Sophie Binet is put to the vote on Friday to succeed Philippe Martinez and get out of a succession battle which risks weakening the union in the midst of the fight against pension reform.
Sophie Binet is the general secretary of Ugict, the union of CGT executives.
The new management team -- secretary general, administrator and executive office -- should be presented to the delegates at 10:00 a.m., according to the Congress program.
The Confederal Executive Commission (CEC), the extended direction of the CGT, began to meet around 11:00 p.m. Thursday.
According to concordant sources, Marie Buisson, candidate for the outgoing management, has put on the table a proposal for a management team, with herself as general secretary. But this proposal was rejected by the National Confederal Committee, the party parliament.
The 66 members of the CEC met again. They thought about a solution around Céline Verzeletti, another candidate, without reaching an agreement, according to concordant sources.
A "third way" then emerged, around the secretary general of Ugict (federation of executives), Sophie Binet. "But it's complicated and not yet voted on" by the CCN, a source told AFP.
This twist comes after a week of stormy congresses, in the midst of a battle against pension reform and a few days before an inter-union meeting in Matignon, an invitation offered by Elisabeth Borne.
The tensions around the succession of Philippe Martinez show the deep fractures of the CGT and the mistrust of many organizations vis-à-vis the outgoing management, in the forefront of which several powerful industrial federations (railway workers, energy, chemistry).
Congress kicked off in a tense atmosphere on Monday, with around 20 members of the trade federation forcing their way into the debating chamber to protest that they could not sit there.
On Tuesday, the delegates rejected the activity report of the outgoing management (50.32% of the votes against), an unprecedented event in the history of the CGT and a major disavowal for Philippe Martinez and his runner-up.
Member of the Congress office, Géraldine Madounari was moved on Wednesday at the podium: "Walking in the aisles leads to seeing and hearing the worst of humanity. Pressures, threats, oriented votes", she had launched.
The debates on the orientation document showed the disagreements between the cégétistes on the links of the CGT with the unions which are close to it (FSU and Solidaires), on ecology or even on international questions - some still ask that the CGT joined the World Federation of Trade Unions (WSF) which it left in 1995.
A particularly acute point of tension, the question of the CGT's membership of the collective Never again, which the CGT co-founded in March 2020 with NGOs and associations, including Greenpeace and Oxfam, and where Marie Buisson represented the CGT.
Thursday evening, a vote going in the direction of an exit from the CGT of this collective sounded like an alarm signal for the outgoing management.
In the end, the orientation document was adopted with 72.79%, a score higher than that of the Dijon congress in 2019, according to Laurent Indrusiak, of the orientation document commission.
As a sign of appeasement, the management had taken care to smooth the edges on the most divisive aspects of the text, removing for example the mention of FSU and Solidaires in the paragraph on "the unification of trade unionism", and that of "Never again" in another paragraph on the collectives in which the CGT participates.
Thursday evening, an "appeal" was signed, in which the CGT again asked for the "pure and simple withdrawal" of the pension reform. "There will be no mediation or compromise," says the text, distancing itself from the idea of "mediation" carried by the inter-union and approved by Philippe Martinez on Tuesday.
03/31/2023 08:37:15 - Cournon-d'Auvergne (France) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
