Trade union membership in France has been declining since the 1980s and is now one of the lowest in western Europe. And yet unions can still mobilise widespread strikes and demos, as the recent pension reform protests proved. What's behind this French paradox?
At the height of recent protests against the government’s pension reforms, trade unions got more than a million people onto the streets.
And while the unions failed to “grind the country to a halt” as hoped, they did manage to disrupt transport, cut electricity output and block fuel deliveries.
This is despite union membership in France hovering at “around only around 8 percent, and 5 percent in the private sector, low compared to other countries”, according to Marie Ménard, who researches trade unions.
Union membership is far higher in Italy (34 percent), the UK (23 percent) or Germany (17 percent). In Iceland, it is as high as 91 percent.
Bargaining for all
The fact that French trade unions punch above their weight is sometimes referred to as “the French paradox”.
Part of the explanation is that France has a collective bargaining agreement that covers 98 percent of workers, meaning that what the unions negotiate with employers applies to everyone – whether they pay their dues or not.
"In France the weight of unions doesn’t depend on how many members they have but on how well they do in professional elections" held every four years, Ménard explains.
Any employee can participate, union member or otherwise.
"When the unions get more than 10 percent of the vote, they can be representative of the workers … at company, branch and national level," she says.
Listen to a conversation with Marie Ménard in the Spotlight on France podcast
Funding strike action
French unions receive a portion of state funding, and while there are some historical links to political parties – the hardline CGT used to be close to the Communist Party, for example – they are now politically independent.
"The CGT is the historic union and has been crucial in defining what French trade unionism is," says Ménard.
In a historic 1906 vote, the CGT declared the separation of the union movement from political parties.
"What’s more, during these conventions the CGT decided that the best means to struggle and fight the employer would be to strike," Ménard continues.
Given the cost-of-living crisis in France, the unions have had to facilitate strike action by compensating for lost wages.
Sociologist Gabriel Rosenham, a specialist on trade union funding, said that each of the eight trade union federations functions differently, some via union dues, others through collections during strikes.
"Special funds have been created recently to reimburse strikers from the very first day, to allow the strike to spread among people who were so short of money they couldn’t even do one day," he said in an interview with Sud Radio.
Funds were also raised through online fundraising and the sale of t-shirts, badges and so on.
"For the CFDT you have to be a member to benefit from a strike fund, but the CGT has a policy of compensating every striker, member or not, and from any professional sector," Rosenham said.
This helped keep the picket lines outside refineries or incinerator plants going.
Ménard points out that employees in the private sector, as well as some public sector workers, also contributed to strike funds.
"A lot of people decided to work as usual, but give their salary to strike funds as a gesture of solidarity," she says. "They said to themselves ‘I can't strike, and anyway people in the energy sector will have more of an impact than me as a manager’."
Pension reform, a lost battle
Despite nationwide protests and strike action, the unions failed to stop pension reform. It was pushed through parliament without a vote and signed into law on 15 April.
“The unions are very strong in some sectors such as energy and transport, but in some services, especially new forms of work, they are not," Ménard says.
The growth in remote working has also reduced the impact of public transport strikes.
While some union members pushed for a general strike to put maximum pressure on the government, the reformist CFDT, now France’s biggest union, was not in favour.
"It showed the limit – that while they can have a huge impact, they still don’t have the organising capacity at a local level to win the fight against the reform," says Ménard.
Strength in unity
Deeply divided, France's eight union federations have lost a lot of public support in recent years.
But by coming together to form a coalition – the intersyndicale – to oppose the pension reform, they succeeded both in mobilising the public and clawing back some credibility.
“French people do not understand what distinguishes the unions and why they are divided," said political scientist Dominique Andolfatto, an expert on labour unions.
"This time, the organisations managed to build quite a solid union," he told 20 Minutes.
"The fact the movement was coherent and unified drew a lot of people onto the streets. And the unions succeeded all the more in bringing people together because political opposition is in an impasse.”
For the traditional May Day rally, the unions also put on a united front.
"It was unique, usually they march apart," says Stéphanie Matteudi-Lecocq, author of a book on trade unions.
However, since each organisation has its own rule book, once the law is applied within companies, "the confederations won’t necessarily think in the same way", she told RFI.
The inter-union group could remain unified on subjects beyond pensions, such as inflation or purchasing power.
"It will be interesting to see how this unity holds, whether trade unionism can be reborn from the ashes and [counter] the criticism it received over the years," says Matteudi-Lecocq. "To show a new, motivated trade unionism that looks after the regions.
"That’s what’s important to retain from the battle against pension reform."
Recent uptick
The CGT and CFDT have both seen an increase in membership since the protests began, with around 10,000 new members each.
Political scientist Andolfatto described it as "a first step in winning back employees".
But given that each union has only around 600,000 members, he said they would need "several tens of thousands more to really change the curve".
And they still have to win over President Emmanuel Macron, who is suspicious of the unions and long refused to negotiate in what Ménard says was "seen as a union-busting tactic by many".
Having got over the pension reform hurdle, the government has invited unions to the negotiating table next week.
They’ve all accepted, including the hardline CGT, though its leader Sophie Binet warned there would be "no return to normal so long as the pension reform is not withdrawn".
A 14th day of nationwide protests has been announced for 6 June.
The fight to defend "salary increases, a reduced working week, improved working conditions, gender equality and the environment" continues, Binet said.
