French Democratic Confederation of Labour

CFDT

Full name	French Democratic Confederation of Labour
Native name	Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail
Founded	1964
Members	875,000
Country	France
Affiliation	ITUC, ETUC, TUAC
Key people	François Chérèque, secretary general
Office location	Paris, France
Website	www.cfdt.fr

The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (French: Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) is a national trade union center, one of the five major French confederations of trade unions, led since 2002 by François Chérèque. It is the largest French trade union confederation by number of members (875,000) but comes only second after the Confédération générale du travail (CGT) in voting results for representative bodies.

History

The CFDT was created in 1964 when a majority of the members of the Christian trade union Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens (CFTC) decided to become secular. The minority kept the name CFTC.

At first, under the lead of Eugène Descamps, the CFDT presented itself like a social-democratic confederation close to the Unified Socialist Party (Parti socialiste unifié or PSU) which was led by Pierre Mendès-France. It came to terms with the CGT, which was dominated by the Communist Party. This alliance took a part in the May 68 upheaval. Then, the CFDT was auto-gestionary.

In 1974, many PSU and CFDT members joined the Socialist Party (Parti socialiste or PS) led by François Mitterrand. Behind Michel Rocard, they formed an internal opposition called "the second left". They abandoned the auto-gestionary project and advocated an alignment on the European social-democracy. In the same time, under the lead of Edmond Maire, the CFDT cut its links with the CGT.

In the 1980s, after François Mitterrand's election and his choice to follow Socialist economic policies, the CFDT appeared like a pro-governmental organization. During this time a lot of members and voters were lost. In the 1990s, under the lead of Nicole Notat, the CFDT chose a strategy of independence towards PS. In this, it supported Alain Juppé's plan of Welfare State reform. It replaced FO like "main partner" of employers and right-wing governments, and to the presidence of social security offices.

In 2003, the support of the new CFDT leader François Chérèque of the plan of pensions reform caused an internal crisis. Some CFDT members left the confederation and chose the CGT or the autonomous trade unions SUD. However, the CFDT participated with the other confederations to the 2006 conflict about the Contrat première embauche (CPE).

Professional Elections

The CFDT won 21.81% of the vote in the employee's college during the 2008 professional elections, making it the second largest trade union in terms of votes in those elections. This result, however, is below the CFDT's 25.23% result in 2002 and its top result to date, 25.35% in 1997.

Famous members

• Eugène Descamps
• Jacques Chérèque
• Edmond Maire
• Nicole Notat
• François Chérèque
• Pierre Rosanvallon

See also

Organized labour portal

• Politics of France
  • Trade unions:
    • Workers' Force
    • French Confederation of Christian Workers
    • General Confederation of Labour
    • French Confederation of Management - General Confederation of Executives
    • Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques
• Mouvement des Entreprises de France

References

a

• ICTUR et al.,, ed (2005). Trade Unions of the World (6th ed.). London, UK: John Harper Publishing. ISBN 0-9543811-5-7. 

External links

• Official site of the CFDT