The civil service launches a showdown with the government in the midst of a political crisis – 03/12/2024 at 4:26 p.m.

Public sector agents are mobilizing on Thursday for a day of action and strike at the call of the unions, threatening to open a new social front in the midst of a political crisis, while the government is on reprieve.

After the railway workers and farmers, the executive is preparing for a new notice of social storm at the heart of a high-risk week since it will have to face the motions of censure tabled by the left and the National Rally on Wednesday.

Several dozen rallies are planned in France on Thursday at the call of an inter-union movement, particularly in Paris.

In the capital, the meeting is given near the Ministry of Economy and Finance at the beginning of the afternoon, from where a procession must reach Place d'Italie. According to the Unsa website, one of the unions, around fifty gatherings have been recorded in France.

The majority union FSU-SNUIpp announced that school teachers “responded to the call for a strike from trade union organizations” with nearly “65% of strikers announced” on Thursday in the “first degree”.

And despite the threat of government censorship on Wednesday, “we will be in the mobilization of December 5,” said Marylise Léon, the general secretary of the CFDT, whose organization is part of the inter-union.

The announcement at the end of October by the government of a plan to combat “absenteeism” of civil servants, which should make it possible to generate 1.2 billion euros in savings, has gradually strained relations between the agents' unions. and the Minister of the Civil Service, Guillaume Kasbarian, before leading to a breakdown in social dialogue.

The unions demand in particular that the minister renounce three measures which crystallize the anger: the passage of one to three days of waiting for sick civil servants, the reduction from 100% to 90% of remuneration in the event of sick leave, and the non-renewal of the payment of a bonus to support purchasing power.

This episode occurs in a tumultuous political sequence after Michel Barnier on Monday held the government responsible for the social security finance bill, provoking the tabling of motions of censure.

Added to this situation is budgetary uncertainty, with the government still seeking 60 billion euros to raise public finances at half mast and reduce the deficit to 5% of GDP in 2025, compared to 6.1% in 2024.

– “Strong act” –

If Guillaume Kasbarian had noted the abandonment of a contested proposal to merge the categories of civil servants envisaged by his predecessor, he remained inflexible on the other measures. “Difficult but assumed” decisions, intended to “align” the public and private sectors, and made essential by a delicate public finance situation, defends those around him.

The mobilization on Thursday should make it possible to “take a strong action” after “evidence of hostility to the public service”, estimates Benoît Teste, general secretary of the civil service of the FSU, a union very established in education which should mobilize strongly .

More than seven months after the last social movement – little followed – by civil servants, “we started on something much bigger on Thursday”, assures Luc Farré, secretary general of the UNSA civil service, whose organization decided mid -November to no longer sit in the “social dialogue bodies chaired by the minister”.

For Solidaires, the hypothesis of government censorship by Thursday “would not change anything for the demonstration and the strike”, because “if the government falls, and this remains subject to reservation, this will allow us to show determination for the next government to ensure that agents are not sacrificed”, estimated Gaëlle Martinez, general secretary of Solidaires public service at AFP.

The broad inter-union movement – CGT, CFDT, UNSA, FSU, CFE-CGC, Solidaires and FA-FP – however has one major absentee, Force Ouvrière, the first representative union in the entire public service.

While supporting the demands, FO did not join the national mobilization of December 5, saying it favored a three-day renewable strike on December 10, 11 and 12, in “convergence” with other sectors. However, the organization participates locally in various mobilizations.