Urban violence: “The strike must take over” from November 5, believes Sophie Binet

The general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet estimated on Wednesday October 21, after a meeting in Matignon, that the Prime Minister had announced “no measure” to respond to the demands of workers and high school students and she called for a “new direction” in the mobilization.

Marylise Léon of the CFDT deemed it “imperative that there be social responses” by November 5. “The Prime Minister, the government has not announced any measures to us, any consideration of our demands,” declared Sophie Binet, after a meeting of around 2.5 hours. She estimated that “the time has come to take a new step in mobilization, the strike must take over” from November 5 on the occasion of a new day announced at the beginning of October by an inter-union association.

“It is imperative that there are social responses”

On Saturday, the CGT will be present in the streets “to support those who wish to mobilize, to protect young people and workers who wish to mobilize (...)”, she also announced. Some organizers of the October 17 mobilization day called for an “Act II” that day, notably declaring a demonstration in Paris.

For the general secretary of the CFDT Marylise Léon, “the mobilization meeting is on November 5 and between now and then, it is imperative that there are social responses to these expectations of all workers who have been waiting for (...) many years, recognition”.

“When we tell them that there is already rising anger, there is a need to provide answers, it is from today that we must be able to answer them on the question of salaries, on the question of the remuneration of civil servants (...)”, she insisted, finding “the government not really keeping up with the times”.

“A discussion around the minimum wage”

The president of the CFTC Cyril Chabanier also judged the meeting “very disappointing” but stressed that the government had “opened the door to there being a discussion around the minimum wage”. “The best way to calm the demonstrations is to have initial measures that bring down the anger, and we don’t have that today,” he noted.

On the National Education side, the general secretary of Snes-FSU, Sophie Vénétitay, said she was leaving the meeting “with a timetable and a method”, in particular the date of Monday for a meeting “on the basis of feedback on the platform” of open consultation for high school students. “After four weeks of mobilization, it is still far below what we can expect. This means that today, the government is still not able to provide concrete answers to both high school students and staff,” lamented Sophie Vénétitay, estimating that “this government is three trains behind.”