Purchasing power: for the unions, wages remain "the priority subject"

“A succession of one-off measures, mainly financed by the State, cannot constitute a sufficient set to respond to the emergency”, write in a rather rare common text the trade union centers (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFTC, CFE-CGC, FSU, Solidaires and Unsa) and student and high school student organizations (Unef, Fidl, Mnl, Vl).

"Wages must remain the basis of a rebalanced distribution of wealth in favor of employees. Support for purchasing power measures is also the responsibility of private and public employers", they judge.

They affirm that the Smic "must remain a starting salary and that it cannot be a low-wage trap keeping employees on the Smic all their professional career".

To this end, they consider that "the conditionality of business aid is now an imperative".

"The future parliamentary debate must make it possible to move forward in particular on this conditionality of aid to companies which do not play the game in terms of wages", they believe.

Implicitly, the unions target exemptions from employer contributions "Fillon" which apply up to 1,6 Smic.

According to the latest government tally, with successive increases in the minimum wage (October, January, May) due to inflation, 112 of the 171 branches with more than 5.000 employees have at least one wage coefficient below the minimum wage.

More generally, while the bill provides for the tripling of the ceiling of the exceptional tax-free and desocialized bonus, known as the Macron bonus, the signatories recall that "these exemptions and reductions in contributions undermine our collective social protection system".

Gathered at the headquarters of Force Ouvrière on Monday evening, the organizations had agreed on the main lines of this common text.

Other meetings are planned on other themes for the start of the school year, the first at the CFDT on September 5th.