Two days before the appointment of the new secretary general of the CGT, negotiations are going well behind the scenes of the 53rd Congress of the trade union organization, the runner-up of Philippe Martinez, Marie Buisson, seeming less assured than ever of the 'to take with.
Two candidacies emerged against that of the secretary general of Ferc (Federation of Research, Education and Culture): that of Olivier Mateu, the media and controversial secretary general of the Departmental Union of Bouches-du-Rhône, and that of Céline Verzeletti, co-general secretary of the UFSE (Federal Union of State Trade Unions).
Assumed loudmouth, at the forefront of the refinery conflict in his department, Mr. Mateu is, according to several officials and observers, on a line that is too radical to gather a majority.
On Wednesday morning, he announced on Twitter that he had offered Céline Verzeletti "to lead this fight each as co-secretary general". To the press, he said he had made this offer to him "a fortnight, three weeks ago", without having received a response.
Asked by AFP, Céline Verzeletti did not respond to Mr. Mateu's proposal. But she said she was "requested by many organizations to assume the responsibility of general secretary" and said she was "available for this in a process of clear and unifying collective construction".
"She is working to gather widely," said one of her relatives to AFP.
Things should settle down in the next few hours.
The National Confederal Committee (CCN), "parliament" of the union which brings together the representatives of the departmental unions and the federations, must meet on Wednesday evening and draw up a list of members of the Confederal Executive Commission (CEC), submitted to the vote of the Congress on Thursday .
This CEC must then meet and agree on a new direction: members of the confederal office and general secretary. The CCN meets again and validates or not this direction.
The program provides for this second CCN to be held on Friday but some would like it to take place on Thursday evening, in order to give time for possible comings and goings between the CEC and the CCN.
Marie Buisson's candidacy appeared weakened on Monday and Tuesday, with many hostile speeches to the outgoing management, and a negative vote on her activity report, an unprecedented fact at the CGT and a major setback for Philippe Martinez.
"I cannot deny that the congress, the supreme authority of the CGT, is today divided in two", admitted to the AEF agency the outgoing secretary general.
"I am very attached to my organization and inevitably, what is happening worries me (...) a divided congress is not good for the image of the CGT, but also of trade unionism in general", a he added.
According to a member of the outgoing management, the withdrawal of Marie Buisson is "not envisaged". "It's a CGT design that we wear (...) We don't want to give up this CGT design, so we will continue to wear it until the end," said this source.
The outcome of the CGT congress could have an impact on its orientations, and on its place within the inter-union which has been leading the battle against pension reform for months, and has raised a social movement of unprecedented magnitude. for decades.
"During the debates, there were criticisms of the inter-union or of our relations with the CFDT, and I don't know how this will evolve," Martinez told the AEF.
Several delegates have criticized in recent days the support given by Mr. Martinez to the request for "mediation" on the conflict of pensions issued to the government by the inter-union.
Support for Mr. Mateu, the secretary general of the federation of chemistry, Emmanuel Lépine, estimated that the CGT should not go with the inter-union to the appointment proposed by the Prime Minister next week. "It's a waste of time and it makes those who are still in the fight today believe that they have been abandoned," he said.
03/29/2023 18:41:44 - Cournon-d'Auvergne (France) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
