Coup de theater at the CGT. Opened in a very tense atmosphere on Monday, the 53rd Congress of the left-wing trade union was the scene of an unexpected vote of no confidence in the outgoing leadership. The delegates present at the Grande Halle d’Auvergne, in the agglomeration of Clermont-Ferrand, rejected by 50.32% of the votes cast the activity report of the outgoing management, a major setback for Philippe Martinez and the candidate who he had chosen to replace him, Marie Buisson.
“This is a first for the CGT in modern times,” said Jean-Marie Pernot, a political scientist specializing in the history of unions, to AFP. “It is a disavowal of everything that has been carried out by the outgoing management”, reacted to the press Céline Verzeletti, co-secretary general of the UFSE (Federal Union of State Trade Unions), more and more openly. candidate for the succession of Philippe Martinez.
This ballot is a “vote by mandates”, which means that the vote of each delegate was “well debated” within the unions, “it is not a vote of mood (…) so it is not a small signal sent to the outgoing management”, she underlined.
A lack of coordination
Throughout the afternoon, the speakers had succeeded in the podium to criticize the orientations of the outgoing management, and the lack of internal democracy at the CGT. They notably denounced the approval by Philippe Martinez of the idea of a “mediation” on the pension file, advanced Tuesday morning by his CFDT counterpart Laurent Berger. “Comrade Philippe Martinez, who gave you a mandate to talk about mediation while the workers are in the street? “, challenged Murielle Morand, of the federation of chemistry.
Congress members castigated a lack of consultation concerning the work of rapprochement between the CGT and the FSU and Solidaires unions, or during the creation in 2020 of the collective “Never again”, bringing together unions, NGOs and associations to tackle the issues head-on. ecological and social. Some have risen against platforms signed with reformist unions, or with the Medef.
Céline Verzeletti “available” to head the union
Earlier in the morning, on the sidelines of the demonstration in Clermont-Ferrand as part of the 10th day of action against the pension reform, Céline Verzeletti said she was “available” to take the head of a CGT “a lot more offensive.
Philippe Martinez himself had bid farewell to the press, welcoming that the CGT was a “living organization”, open to “democratic debate”. “All of the union members that I see are proud to be at the CGT, of what it is leading in this fight with the other trade union organizations. It is the image of a protest organization that makes proposals, it is an image of the CGT as it is and not as sometimes we try to caricature it. »