On May 1st, Sébastien Lecornu temporizes and promises there will be no forced passage

On May 1, a public holiday, and a day of rest and celebration, be at risk due to the national assembly? The possibility worries the leaders of the eight major trade union federations (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 scheduled for Tuesday to modify the labor code. The government’s objective is to allow employees of certain businesses (including bakers and florists) to work on May 1, where the law currently prohibits it.

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Upon receiving the letter, Sébastien Lecornu indicated that he did not intend to “force through” and reassured the trade unions. “The joint committee has not yet been convened. It is therefore necessary to take the time to work towards an effective and acceptable solution,” Matignon stated. On his part, the Minister of Labor, Jean-Pierre Farandou, will meet with the unions on Monday evening at 6 p.m. to “work with them on a very precise perimeter of the businesses concerned.”

However, the decree being prepared by the government, which could be implemented as soon as May 1, leaves no room for doubt. It foresees the opening of “large industrial chains” such as bakeries and pastry shops, ice cream and chocolate chains, butcher shops, delicatessens, cheese and dairy shops, fishmongers, stores selling fruits and vegetables including specialized supermarkets, florists, garden centers, cinemas, museums, exhibition halls, theaters, and cultural centers.

“Respecting social democracy”

“We hear about the small local baker and florist, but they can already open on May 1. In reality, this law is meant to benefit large chains: Interflora, Carrefour, Fnac, Marie Blachère,” said CGT’s secretary general Sophie Binet a few days ago. In their joint letter, the unions thus argue that the proposed law defended by the “central bloc,” the right-wing and the far-right will “extend the derogation of opening on May 1 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 1 is highly symbolic and even unique in the French calendar. Touching on this day awakens old disputes and attacks a totem of the workers’ movement, now defended by the left. The origins of May 1 are diffuse. Some highlight the year 1886, when a massive strike broke out in Chicago, in front of the Mac Cormick 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 the workers, resulting in nine deaths.

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