Joint French Union Statement on May 26 Protests

CFDT, CFTC, CFE-CGC, CGT, FOR, FSU, Solidaires, UNSA
25 May 2009

The magnitude of the mobilization of 29 January, 19 March, 1 May yielded early results.

These are extremely insufficient in the light of both the claims made on 5 January 2009, and continued worsening of the crisis. Both the Employers and government must prioritise initiating negotiations and dialogue with the utmost urgency.


The government must put the "social" at the centre of its economic policy by:

• Enhancing the minimum wage, the minimum social benefits, pensions and pensions;
• Making any assistance or any reduction in social contributions by employers conditional on measurable increases in employment, skills training and remuneration;
• Implement an ambitious plan to promote employment and skills of young;
• Extend period of full compensation for people who have been made redundant;
• Give the Employment Centres the needs not only of employers but job seekers;
• Remove the tax exemptions for overtime and on contributions to stock options, use this additional revenue to finance social measures;
• Renounce the job cuts planned for public offices planned for 2009 and 2010, and commit to addressing the insecurity by continuing wage negotiations.

These are the conditions for quality public services that meet the needs of the population,

The employers must finally assume their responsibilities and launch negotiations on:

• Wage policies, industrial policies, the evolution of employment in industrial sectors, the reports of customers - contractors, to maintain and increase employment and reduce insecurity;
• Better access for all to partial unemployment, improving the duration and level of compensation associated with skills training;
• The distribution and redistribution of wealth in companies, improving wages and reducing inequalities, especially between men and women, recognition of qualifications, the use of public money for the benefit of employment;
• Implement lasting measures to promote the employment of young people to ensure their social and professional development,Comply with and improve trade union rights and the representative institutions of the staff.

The government should abandon the extension of work on Sundays, ensure that public hospitals funded sufficiently to provide universal services, develop social housing and regulate the prices of rents.

Policies that improve the purchasing power of wages to increase consumer demand, along with the implementation of industrial and economic policies for sustainable development, coordinated at European level are all means to respond immediately and structurally with the crisis.