Photograph credit: B. Guay / AFP
The return to parliament opened with the dialogue on the brand new anti-social assault on unemployment insurance coverage. The target of the federal government and the appropriate is obvious: staff should be compelled labor at will, compelled to just accept any job, on any situation. A mission for which the (nearly) presidential majority and the appropriate of the Republicans stroll hand in hand and compete in inventiveness to select our pockets.
This full-scale assault on our rights, soberly titled “emergency measures referring to the operation of the labor market with a view to full employment”, plans to present free rein to the federal government to resolve by decree on the way in which wherein the situations of entry to unemployment profit. This hardening must be “concerted” with the commerce union leaderships and the employers.
Learn how to obtain full employment? Straightforward, in accordance with the federal government and the bourgeoisie: the issue of unemployment is the employees who don’t wish to work! So you must power them. It isn’t as a result of the capitalists all the time make us work extra, longer (till 65 years as they dream of it), speed up the tempo, lay off with a vengeance, that everybody can not work. It is as a result of the poor are lazy! That is the that means of this new assault, after the first unemployment insurance reform in 2019, which notably tightened the situations for granting rights. Sure measures of this reform, which elevated specifically from 4 to 6 months the working time essential to open rights, expire in November. They’ll due to this fact be renewed… and worsened!
The federal government will have the ability to resolve by decree tips on how to make life tougher for the unemployed
Macron thus needs to modulate the situations of entry to unemployment, in accordance with the scenario of the labor market, and can legislate by decree to specify the situations. The communication from the federal government repeated again and again is as follows: “when issues are going very nicely, the foundations must be extra incentivizing and when issues are usually not going so nicely, they must be extra protecting” No luck, on this second the federal government considers that issues are going very nicely on the employment aspect, and the bourgeois media inform us all day lengthy that we’re wanting fingers. They clearly don’t say that in France there are at the moment at the least 10 occasions extra unemployed than unfilled jobs (three.6 million unemployed for about 300,000 vacant jobs).
The federal government might resolve because it needs on the criterion to be taken into consideration to estimate that “issues are going very nicely”. As a result of issues are all the time going very nicely in relation to speaking about unemployment. Governments don’t hesitate to take the figures for this or that Pôle emploi category or another indicator (after they’re not simply deleting hundreds of individuals) to inform us of financial upturns, when all the things reveals that their sick system is not holding up. Thus, Macron might resolve that in accordance with the variety of jobs created in a yr, or in accordance with the evolution of the variety of unemployed, we are able to make life tougher for individuals searching for work.
On TV units, Marc Ferracci, the rapporteur of the invoice, shut good friend of Macron and adviser for the XXL Labor Regulation ordinances of 2017, units the tone: if after Macron’s assault, you must work 6 months out of the final 24 months to open rights, it “might go to 7 or eight months, I do not know”. He’s additionally contemplating lowering the length of compensation as a result of what “we see is that when the top of rights approaches, the speed of individuals returning to work tends to extend”.
Dussopt and Ferraci go as far as to say that the reform is not going to have an effect on the quantity of the allowance, underneath the pretext of “defending the buying energy of the French”. Straightforward to say since they’ve already taken care of de facto reducing the quantity acquired by a whole lot of hundreds of recipients because of the perverse mechanisms of the primary a part of the reform handed in 2019.
The Republicans and the Modem outbid
On this textual content, discovering a majority within the meeting mustn’t pose too many issues for the federal government, which might depend on Les Républicains to toughen it up somewhat extra. They’ve additionally tabled a number of amendments to take away unemployed individuals from Pôle Emploi extra simply (within the occasion of refusal of a single supply, thought of cheap), or to contemplate job abandonment as resignation, and due to this fact stop the opening of unemployment rights.
At Modem and Horizons, amendments have been tabled to compel staff on fixed-term or momentary contracts to just accept CDI presents. Refusal can be transmitted to Pôle Emploi and will result in a suspension of rights.
These measures are supported by the federal government and must be built-in into the system. The bourgeoisie is organizing to take care of a phenomenon like that of the “Nice Resignation” which affected the USA after the pandemic. She tries to chain us to our boss, to not have the ability to depart a shitty job, underneath penalty of reducing us off. If you’re not completely happy along with your working situations, you may all the time go ravenous.
A historic assault, when will the response come?
This counter-reform is a historic assault on your entire working class. Unemployment is likely one of the most horrible irrationalities of the capitalist system which condemns part of the employees to distress whereas others kill themselves at work. The labor motion has all the time fought to guard itself from it. Macron and the bosses at the moment are attacking what stays of the most important achievements of the employees’ struggles on this nation.
The response ought to match this assault. Nonetheless, the commerce union leaderships proceed to go and sit down at Dussopt’s desk, to debate and “seek the advice of collectively”. Macron’s maneuver is skilful, since he will get an article voted which doesn’t present for something, however leaves all the things to negotiations. The union leaders count on nothing greater than invites to come back and talk about so as to acquire nothing quite than to construct mobilization and can thus be fully glad.
On the aspect of the NUPES, the “parliamentary guerrillas” have lead within the wing. The rebellious group yesterday filed a movement of rejection previous to the textual content of the regulation, to which the Nationwide Rally rallied, however which was rejected. The parliamentary victory of this textual content is ensured by the Renaissance / LR majority, so solely the road might roll again all of its present assaults: in opposition to RSA recipients, in opposition to unemployment insurance coverage, to convey again the retirement age to 65!
At present, an actual anger is expressed within the nation by way of a number of strikes for wages. The mobilization that paralyzes the refineries of Total and ExxonMobil for greater than two weeks might be the fulcrum to increase the strike to the entire nation. To acquire a direct improve of 400 euros in all wages, their indexation to inflation and to place a cease to all these assaults, it’ll take a basic mobilization of the commerce union apparatuses, whose managements are quite busy in the meanwhile responding to all the federal government’s negotiation/session proposals. The leaders of the CGT, CFDT, FO, Solidaires and different unions should be compelled to interrupt with social dialogue and use all the ability of the union apparatuses to construct an general battle plan. It is time to take motion, and to win!
