The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (french: link=no, Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) is a

national trade union center A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. In some regions, such a ...

, one of the five major French confederations of trade unions, led since 2012 by

Laurent Berger Laurent Berger (born 27 October 1968 in Guérande, Loire-Atlantique) is a French trade unionist. He has been the general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT) since 28 November 2012. Life Youth Laurent Berger is th ...

. It is the largest French trade union confederation by number of members (875,000) but comes only second after the

Confédération générale du travail The General Confederation of Labour (french: Confédération Générale du Travail, CGT) is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions. It is t ...

(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 The French Confederation of Christian Workers (french: italic=no, Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens; CFTC) is one of the five major French confederation of trade unions, belonging to the social Christian tradition. It was f ...

(CFTC) decided they preferred to be part of a secular union. The minority kept the name CFTC. At first, under the leadership of ), the CFDT presented itself as a social-democratic confederation close to the Unified Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste unifié'' or PSU) which was led by

Pierre Mendès-France Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

. It sometimes acted in concert 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 Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(''Parti socialiste'' or PS) led by

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

. With

Michel Rocard Michel Rocard (; 23 August 1930 – 2 July 2016) was a French politician and a member of the Socialist Party (PS). He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991 during which he created the ''Revenu minimum d'ins ...

at their helm, they formed an internal opposition called "the second left". They abandoned the auto-gestionary project and advocated aligning themselves with the European social-democracy model. At the same time, under the leadership of

Edmond Maire Edmond Maire (; 24 January 1931 – 1 October 2017) was a French labor union leader. He was the secretary general of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT) from 1971 to 1988. He was dismissive of strike actions and supported a more e ...

, the CFDT cut its ties with the CGT. In the 1980s, after

's election and his choice to follow Socialist economic policies, the CFDT appeared to be a pro-governmental organization. During this time a lot of members and voters were lost. In the 1990s, under the leadership of

Nicole Notat Nicole Notat, born 26 July 1947 in Châtrices, Marne, is the former secretary general of the union CFDT. She is currently founder and president of Vigeo, a company committed to a concept of sustainable development. Notat is a member of the ' ...

, the CFDT chose to distance its strategy from the PS. In this, it supported

Alain Juppé Alain Marie Juppé (; born 15 August 1945) is a French politician. A member of The Republicans, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac, during which period he faced major strikes that paralysed the coun ...

's plan of Welfare State reform. It replaced

Force ouvrière The General Confederation of Labor - Workers' Force (french: Confédération Générale du Travail - Force Ouvrière, or simply , FO), is one of the five major union confederations in France. In terms of following, it is the third behind the CGT ...

(FO) as the "main partner" of employers and right-wing governments, and the presidency of social security offices. In 2003, the support of the new CFDT leader

François Chérèque François Chérèque (1 June 1956 – 2 January 2017) was a French Trade unionist, and leader of the French trade union CFDT (French Democratic Confederation of Labour or ''Confédération française démocratique du travail''). Early life Fran� ...

for pensions reform plans 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 The ''contrat première embauche'' (CPE; en, first employment contract) was a new form of employment contract pushed in spring 2006 in France by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. This employment contract, available solely to employees und ...

'' (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.

Affiliates

Current

The following federations are affiliated: Other affiliates are: * CFDT Executives (UCC CFDT) * Confederate Union of Retired Persons (UCR CFDT) * Union of Public Service and Similar Federations (UFFA)

Former

Leadership

General Secretaries

:1964: Eugène Descamps :1971:

:1988: Jean Kaspar :1992:

:2002:

:2012:

Presidents

:1964: Georges Levard :1967: André Jeanson :1971: Laurent Lucas :1973: ''Post abolished''

Notable members

Pierre Rosanvallon Pierre Rosanvallon (born 1 January 1948) is a French historian and sociologist. He was named a professor at the Collège de France in 2001, holding the chair in modern and contemporary political history. Career His works are dedicated to the his ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:French Democratic Confederation of Labour European Trade Union Confederation National trade union centers of France 1964 establishments in France Trade unions established in 1964