Unions and Leaders
Workers' unions.
- Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT): around 800,000 claimed members. It had traditional ties with the French Communist Party, but is currently tending more towards social-democratic views. 34.00%. General secretary : Bernard Thibault
- Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT): about 800,000 members. Considered to be close to the more reformist factions of the PS, and the first to sign with "patronat". 21.81%. General secretary : François Chérèque
- Force Ouvrière (FO): 500,000 members. Anarcho-syndicalism to yellow syndicalism, depend of the union, split from the CGT (1947). 15.81%. General secretary: Jean-Claude Mailly
- Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens (CFTC): 140,000 members. Christian reformist. 8.69%. President: Jacques Voisin
- Confédération Générale des Cadres (CFE-CGC): Reformist, White-collar and executive workers union which claims 180,000 members. 8.19%. President : Bernard Van Craeynest
- Union Nationale des Syndicats Autonomes (UNSA): 360,000 members. Reformist. 6.25%. General Secretary: Alain Olive
- Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques, (SUD): heir of the "Group of 10", a group of radical trade unions ("syndicalisme de lutte"), 110,000 members, 3.82% ;
- Confédération Nationale du Travail (CNT): Anarcho-syndicalist trade union which claims 8,000 members
Employers' organisations.
- Movements of French Corporations (Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF), formerly known as CNPF), sometimes referred to as patronat.
- General confederation of the little and middle corporations ("Confédération Générale des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises") (CGPME), aligned its position to the MEDEF.
Read more about this topic: Politics Of France
Famous quotes containing the words unions and, unions and/or leaders:
“When Hitler attacked the Jews ... I was not a Jew, therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church—and there was nobody left to be concerned.”
—Martin Niemller (1892–1984)
“When Hitler attacked the Jews ... I was not a Jew, therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church—and there was nobody left to be concerned.”
—Martin Niemller (1892–1984)
“For aesthetics is the mother of ethics.... Were we to choose our leaders on the basis of their reading experience and not their political programs, there would be much less grief on earth. I believe—not empirically, alas, but only theoretically—that for someone who has read a lot of Dickens to shoot his like in the name of an idea is harder than for someone who has read no Dickens.”
—Joseph Brodsky (b. 1940)