The May 1st public holiday may be at risk of being changed by the National Assembly. This prospect worries the leaders of eight major trade unions (CGT, CFDT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, FSU, and Solidaires) who have decided to take a stand by sending a joint letter to the Prime Minister.
Together, they ask him not to convene the joint committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday to amend the Labor Code. The government’s objective is to allow employees in some businesses (including bakers and florists) to work on May 1st, where it is currently prohibited by law.
Upon receiving the letter, Sebastien Lecornu stated that he did not intend to “force through” and reassured the trade unions. “The joint committee has not yet been convened. Therefore, it is necessary to take the time to find an effective and acceptable solution,” Matignon announced. On the other hand, Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou is set to meet with unions on Monday evening at 6:00 pm to “work with them on a very specific perimeter of businesses concerned.”
However, the decree that the government is about to promulgate, which could be implemented as early as next May 1st, leaves no room for doubt. It foresees the opening of “large industrial chains” of bakeries and pastry shops, “ice cream and chocolate chains, butcher shops, delicatessens and tripe shops, cheese shops, fishmongers, fruit and vegetable stores including specialized supermarkets, florists, garden centers, and seed shops, cinemas, museums, exhibition halls, theaters, and cultural centers.”
“Respect Social Democracy”
“We hear about the small local baker and florist, but they can already open on May 1st. In reality, this law is made to benefit large chains: Interflora, Carrefour, Fnac, Marie Blachère,” the CGT Secretary-General Sophie Binet lamented a few days ago. In their joint letter, the unions thus believe that the bill defended by the “central bloc,” the right, and the far-right will “extend the derogation for opening on May 1st to many professional sectors,” but also “to large companies, to the detriment of employees and small independent local businesses.”
“Mr. Prime Minister, one does not reform a text of social history and collective conquests so abruptly,” write the union leaders, including Sophie Binet (CGT), Marilyse Léon (CFDT), and Frédéric Souillot (FO). “We therefore ask you not to convene this joint committee in order to respect social democracy and political democracy.”
May 1st is highly symbolic and even unique in the French calendar. Touching this day arouses old quarrels and targets a totem of the workers’ movement, now defended by the left. The origins of May 1st are diffuse. Some highlight the year 1886, when a massive strike erupted in Chicago, in front of the McCormick factories, to defend the eight-hour workday. Others refer to 1891, when a demonstration in Fourmies (Nord) turned into a tragedy as the army fired on workers, resulting in nine deaths.
