Force Ouvrière: Frédéric Souillot elected secretary general of union organization

Frédéric Souillot, member of the Confederal Bureau since 2015, collected, Friday evening, 87.68 % of the votes cast by the members of the National Confederate Committee.

Le Monde with AFP

Unity despite some skirmishes. The 25 e Congress of Force Ouvrière (FO) ended, Friday, June 3, with the almost unanimous approval of the outgoing secretary general, Yves Veyrier, and the election without firing to fire His successor, Frédéric Souillot, only candidate.

m. Souillot, member of the Confederal Bureau since 2015, collected 87.68 % of the votes cast by the members of the National Confederate Committee (CCN), the “Parliament” of FO, bringing together representatives of federations and departmental unions (77.47 % of registered).

Small sweet and bitter note for the new secretary general of the union: he is “the least elected” of the twelve members of the Confederate Bureau designated on Friday, according to one of his opponents of the Congress, Fabrice Lerestif. The outgoing management activity report, conversely, had been approved with an exceptional score – 98.15 % of the vote – as well as the cash ratio – 98.27 %.

a unit image

The various resolutions, defining the FO line for the next four years, were also adopted by a large majority during votes by hand, Friday morning, during the congress which had opened on Monday in the suburbs of Rouen and in which some three thousand activists participated.

The future management team will be “carried by the formidable unity, the formidable democratic gathering of the Confederation that you have just expressed,” said in the morning Mr. Veyrier, in a brief farewell speech, very applauded by activists.

After the Lille stormy congress in 2018, who had seen the secretary general Jean-Claude Mailly copiously hué then the departure, after six months, of his successor Pascal Pavageau following the revelation of the existence From a file on union leaders, FO was keen to give an image of unit.

Sign of this desire to gather, the competitor of Mr. Souillot, Christian Grolier, representative of the “Trotskyist” current, had withdrawn on Wednesday. “The fights that await us and the hope that we must give to employees require the widest possible unit,” justified Mr. Grolier, in a text read in the gallery.

Support for Part of the “Trotskyists”

Frédéric Souillot is, like Mr. Veyrier, from the “reformist” current of FO, and benefited like him from the support of some of the “Trotskyists”, led by Hubert Raguin. The new secretary general will have to implement the FO roadmap, focused in particular on the defense of the “payroll” and the fight against the retirement age project at 65, carried by the president Emmanuel Macron. The constant demand of FO in recent years was the return to 60 years and thirty-seven years and a half of contributions.

The resolution adopted on Friday claims that the “blockage” of age decrease projects and lengthening the duration of contribution “will constitute an advance to return to retirement at 60 years at full rate and in the perspective of the Back to 37.5 years of subscription, by creating the necessary force report when the conditions are met “.

A formulation deemed too soft by some and which gave rise to one of the rare broncas in the room, Friday morning, when Eric Lecourtois (departmental union of Côtes-d’Armor) carried an amendment asking that FO continues to claim clearly the thirty-seven and a half.

m. Souillot will also have to strive to advance Force Ouvrière compared to other union centers, while professional elections are held in the public service at the end of the year.

In Le Monde, Yves Veyrier said on Sunday that FO was not “intended to stay on the last step of the podium”, behind the CFDT and the CGT. In 2018, the union had dropped slightly in the public sector ( – 0.5 point, at 18.1 %), and in 2021, it remained almost stable in the private sector ( – 0.36 point, at 15.24 %).

/Media reports.