IN ITS annual report on the state of trade union rights in the world, the ITUC accuses the French State of ‘police brutality’ and ‘indiscriminate arrests’ in the demonstrations, French trade union federation the CGT notes.
‘In France, trade unions have organised large demonstrations to protest against the controversial and undemocratic decision to raise the retirement age. Their legal protests have resulted in police brutality, indiscriminate arrests and tear gas attacks by police and security forces.’ (Extract from the ITUC Global Rights Index 2023).
The CGT said: ‘France is repeatedly mentioned among the least rights-respecting countries in the world this year.
‘The country is mentioned several times in the 2023 report, alongside others much less advanced in this area, and this in very unflattering terms. A clear statement, to which the CGT did not fail to contribute in its answers to a questionnaire communicated to the CSI last February.
‘The tone is set from the foreword to the document, according to which “Whether in Eswatini, Myanmar or Peru, in France, Iran or Korea, workers demand respect for their rights, but are not heard and the forces of order are reacting more and more brutally to their dissatisfaction.”
‘Reference is obviously made to the demonstrations that took place all over France at the start of the year, testimony of an almost unprecedented scale of the legitimate anger of the French people during the fight against the pension reform.
‘The report indeed explains that, if “Europe has long been considered a bastion of democracy and rights, this has continued to deteriorate over the past ten years. In Belgium, France and the Netherlands, workers have also suffered tougher restrictions and the refusal of governments and employers to negotiate with union representatives.”
‘With regard to attacks on freedom of expression and assembly, France stands alongside other countries in the world showing “severe restrictions of these rights” with regard to workers, like Burkina Faso, Egypt, Zimbabwe.
‘Finally, the country of human rights is pointed out for its practices of arbitrary arrests, detentions and imprisonment of workers “for having asserted their fundamental rights”, since mentioned again in the report compared to El Salvador, Guinea-Bissau, Hong Kong, India, Myanmar, Turkey and Zimbabwe.
‘Such a deterioration in the state of trade union rights and freedoms in France is as impressive as it is worrying, as Luc Triangle, Acting General Secretary of the ITUC, did not fail to underline during the online conference presenting the report on June 30.
‘In the current context of violence which followed the death of young Nahel, killed by a policeman during a road check in Nanterre on June 27, 2023, the observation made by the CSI in its report against France takes on an even more alarming resonance.
‘It is urgent that the government take stock of the situation as soon as possible and work to ensure respect for trade union rights and freedoms in the country.
‘The CGT will never stop denouncing all violations of these rights, as much as necessary, so that an end is finally put to the repression and persecution of workers.’
- Paid vacation, where does it come from? In this summer period, the CGT returns to the history of the fight to obtain paid leave.
In 1936 after a massive strike movement, workers accompanied by the CGT won two weeks of paid leave.
For the first time, male and female workers were able to go on vacation. ‘Being on vacation while being paid was a miracle,’ says a Savoyard steelworker.
The CGT was fully involved in supporting employees beyond work.
It contributed to the development of popular tourism with the proliferation of camps for children, and the creation of a tourist office.
In 1945 and 1946, was the creation of Works Councils. The management of social activities passed into the hands of the labour movement, which made it a powerful tool in the service of emancipation.
In 1956, the third week was voted. In 1969 the fourth, one of the demands of May 68. In 1982, we win the fifth week.
The reduction of working time is in the direction of history. But it is nonetheless a matter of power relations with employers.
Even today, a large proportion of workers cannot go on vacation. ‘So let’s keep fighting for better wages and for the right to free time!’
A statement by fellow union federation Force Ouvriere (FO) General Secretary Frederic Souillot began with the quote: ‘Paid holidays! Possibility of relaxation and renewal for those who had hitherto known only the gloomy decor of the working class district of the big city and the smoky and noisy atmosphere of the factory.
‘This made it possible to make contact with other countries, other climates, other men, other problems, it was really the accession to another life, the discovery of domains hitherto forbidden.’
Souillot said: ‘This is how Georges Vidalenc, first director of the Workers’ Education Centre of the FO confederation, describes the contribution of paid holidays in “Aspects of the French trade union movement”, analysing one of the major achievements of the constructive trade unionism embodied by Force Ouvriere.
‘This right to rest, and more broadly the right to vacation, constitutes, it is worth recalling, a fundamental right, guaranteed by Conventions 101 and 132 on paid leave of the International Labour Organisation, and on the other hand, the 1998 law against exclusions which enshrines them as follows in its article 140: “… equal access for all, throughout life, to culture, sports, holidays and recreation is a national goal. It guarantees the effective exercise of citizenship” .
‘However, despite these legislative advances, the right to vacation is still not a reality for everyone.
‘It has also been badly abused for many years: one in two French people does not go on vacation, which is also the case for one in three children.
‘In total, more than 22 million people still cannot exercise this right, knowing that for 65% of the French people concerned, the deprivation of vacation is linked to financial constraints. Not being able to access it is a widening of inequalities.
‘Over the past few years, the precariousness of employment and the logic of increasing splitting of working hours have substantially modified the methods of taking leave and sometimes increased the difficulties of access to vacation.
‘This is why FO reaffirms the full and complete respect of the right to paid leave: the vacation period must remain freely chosen by the employee for a significant period, allowing a real time of rest.
‘The union commitment of Force Ouvrière in favour of the right to holidays is undeniable with the constant concern to improve salary and employment conditions, and to allow wider access to holidays.
‘More than eighty years after the first paid leave, vigilance must remain in place to ensure that this right is fully realised.
‘This opening holiday period is all the more important this year as it comes after months of mobilisation against an unfair and unjustified pension reform.
‘We are not turning the page, we are preparing the rest, and from the start of the school year, we will carry our demands on pensions, but also on purchasing power and wages!’
