The French postal unions have failed to agree on a common response to the government’s decision torestructure La Poste into a limited company next January, French media reported.
A meeting at the head office of CFDT last Thursday broke up after just one hour due todisagreements over whether to fully oppose the bill or seek guarantees under the reform plans. Themeeting followed the presentation of the bill by Industry secretary and government spokesman LucChatel last Tuesday. According to the draft law, there will be no partial privatisation via a sharesale but the company’s capital would be opened to public investors to raise some €2.7 billion formodernisation and strategic growth in order to prepare La Poste for full postal liberalisation in2011.
The Federal Secretary of CFDT, Alain Barrault, said the government announcement that La Postewould be maintained as a 100% publicly owned group was acceptable. But the draft law presented byChatel raises doubts about the financing of the public service, he added. The CFDT supported commonaction that should not aim at the retraction of the draft law but “at guarantees, especially theaccumulation of capital”, Barrault further explained. “We can have disagreements about the company’s status and still fight together for salaries, working conditions and rights of the post officeclerks.”
The other unions FO, Sud PTT and CFTC disagreed with CFDT and left the meeting early. “Theunion must have clear objectives,” said Didier Aubé, federal secretary of Sud PTT, “the refusal ofLa Poste privatisation and the retraction of the draft law”. The union described a ‘100% publiclyowned limited company’ as a “hoax” and called for a “far-ranging strike”, meaning “strike actionsand not only for 24 hours,” Aubé made clear.
For the CGT union, “La Porte privatisation, no matter in which form, is neither amendable nornegotiable”. Colette Duynslaeger, general secretary of CGT, proposed to continue “strike action onthe spot all summer long for the government to renounce the whole privatisation project and for LaPoste to stop the degradation of working conditions and to start negotiating the rights andguarantees of postal workers and postal service.” The union also suggested a new national strikeday and protests.
Most of the postal unions, various associations and left-wing political parties will join upin a “national mobilisation committee against privatisation”. This committee will meet on 24 June “to plan further initiatives for people to express themselves clearly against the privatisation andthe future of La Poste and the public postal service”, CGT added.
The French cabinet is due to approve the draft bill on 27 July and then present it officiallyto Parliament in the autumn.
