Laurent Berger (born 27 October 1968 in

Guérande Guérande (; br, Gwenrann, ; french: label=Gallo, Geraundd) is a medieval town located in the department of Loire-Atlantique, and the region of Pays de la Loire, Western France. The inhabitants are referred to as ''Guérandais'' (masculine), and ...

Loire-Atlantique Loire-Atlantique (; br, Liger-Atlantel; before 1957: ''Loire-Inférieure'', br, Liger-Izelañ, link=no) is a department in Pays de la Loire on the west coast of France, named after the river Loire and the Atlantic Ocean. It had a population o ...

) is a French

trade unionist A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...

. He has been the general secretary of the

French Democratic Confederation of Labour The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (french: link=no, Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) is a national trade union center, one of the five major French confederations of trade unions, led since 2012 by Laurent Be ...

(CFDT) since 28 November 2012.

Life

Youth

Laurent Berger is the son of a worker of the

Chantiers de l'Atlantique Chantiers de l'Atlantique is a shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. It is one of the world's largest shipyards, constructing a wide range of commercial, naval, and passenger ships. It is located near Nantes, at the mouth of the Loire river and ...

and of a child care assistant. During his studies, he was a supervisor in a high school. He joined the

at that time. After he earned a master's degree in history from

Nantes University The University of Nantes (french: Université de Nantes) is a public university located in the city of Nantes, France. In addition to the several campuses scattered in the city of Nantes, there are two satellite campuses located in Saint-Nazaire a ...

, he became a permanent staff member of the

Young Christian Workers The Young Christian Workers (YCW; french: Jeunesse ouvrière chrétienne) is an international organization founded by Rev. Joseph Cardijn in Belgium as the Young Trade Unionists; the organization adopted its present name in 1924. Its French acronym, ...

(YCW) in 1991. He was the general secretary of the YCW from 1992 to 1994. He was subsequently unemployed for six months and was intermittently a substitute teacher of history and geography. He was employed by a social insertion association in

Saint-Nazaire Saint-Nazaire (; ; Gallo: ''Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer'') is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean ...

to help long-term unemployed adults and RMI beneficiaries to find jobs. There, he created a CFDT section and became the staff representative of this association of nine employees.

Union action

In 1996, Berger became a permanent staff member of the Saint-Nazaire CFDT local union. He worked on employment and youth issues within the trade union. In 2003, he was elected general secretary of the CFDT regional union of

Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; ; br, Broioù al Liger) is one of the 18 regions of France, in the west of the mainland. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of "balancing metropolises" (). ...

and joined the CFDT national office. On 17 June 2009 he was elected to the Confederal Executive Commission, the leading body of the CFDT, where he was in charge of small business files. After 2010, he was in charge of employment issues, securing career and integration paths. In this respect, he was the CFDT negotiator to state unemployment insurance and to youth employment. Berger was appointed as the deputy general secretary of CFDT on 21 March 2012. He was the head of a reflection on the functioning of the CFDT, aimed at bringing the union closer to employees. After

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� ...

's resignation, Berger was elected as the general secretary by the CFDT national office on 28 November 2012. He was re-elected with 98.31 percent of votes on 5 March 2014 during a CFDT congress in Marseille. In 2016, Berger supported the Socialist government's labour law reform bill, in contrast with the FO and CGT unions. In June 2018, Berger was re-elected as the general secretary of the CFDT with more than 90 percent of votes. Under Berger's chairmanship, the CFDT became the largest trade union at union elections in the private sector (2017) but remained the second one at the elections in the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

(2018). On 11 December 2018 Berger tweeted that the CFDT had become the first trade union in France, overtaking the General Confederation of Labour (CGT). Berger has been the chairman of the

European Trade Union Confederation The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is the major trade union organisation representing workers at the European level. In its role as a European social partner, the ETUC works both in a consulting role with the European Commission and n ...

since May 2019.

Opinion against the National Front

In an interview with Francis Brochet for regional press group EBRA in the aftermath of the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

favourable towards the National Front, Laurent Berger stated: "For me, the National Front is always too high: this party (I am not talking about its voters) is a stain on democracy. We have the choice between an authoritarian society that will be into the 'We just have to' and look for a scapegoat, and a more appeased society of dialogue and listening. It is more complicated, but it will always be my choice." In April 2017, during the

2017 French presidential election The 2017 French presidential election was held on 23 April and 7 May 2017. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! (EM) and Marine Le Pen of the Nationa ...

, Berger announced he had "clearly taken a stance against

Marine Le Pen Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (; born 5 August 1968) is a French lawyer and politician who ran for the French presidency in 2012, 2017, and 2022. A member of the National Rally (RN; previously the National Front, FN), she served as its pre ...

and published arguments for FDT'smilitants", even if he did not give any voting instructions.

Publications

* Laurent Berger, Claude Sérillon, ''Syndiquez-vous'', Le Cherche midi, 2019 * Laurent Berger, dialogue with Denis Lafay, ''Au boulot ! Manifeste pour le travail'', Éditions de l'Aube, 2018 * Laurent Berger,

Pascal Canfin Pascal Canfin (born in Arras, 22 August 1974) is a French politician of La République en marche (LREM) who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament (EUP) since 2019. In the 2019 elections for the UE Parliament, he was elected in ...

, interviews with Philippe Frémeaux, ''Réinventer le progrès'', Les Petits Matins, 2016 * Laurent Berger, ''Permis de construire'', Tallandier, 2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Laurent 20th-century French people 21st-century French people French Democratic Confederation of Labour members French trade union leaders People from Loire-Atlantique University of Nantes alumni 1968 births Living people