The General Confederation of Labor - Workers' Force (, or simply , FO), is one of the five major
union confederations in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. In terms of following, it is the third behind the
CGT and the
CFDT
The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (, CFDT) is a national trade union center, one of the five major French confederations of trade unions, led since 2023 by . It is the second largest French trade union confederation by number of memb ...
.
Force Ouvrière was founded in 1948 by former members of the
General Confederation of Labor (CGT) who denounced the dominance of the
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...
over that federation.
FO is a member of the
European Trade Union Confederation. Its leader is Frédéric Souillot, since June 2022.
History
After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, members of the French Communist Party attained considerable influence within the CGT, controlling 21 of its 30 federations.
The communists, at the time in the French government, used their positions inside the CGT to stop strikes in the name of the "battle for national production". Maurice Thorez, the leader of the PCF, make a telling declaration : "Strike is the tool of the capitalist trusts".
For quite a number of union members, this attitude is a betrayal of the 1906 ''
Charte d'Amiens'', a text who uphold as his main principle the total independence of the unions from the state and any political party.
Senior figures such as
Robert Bothereau and the former secretary general,
Léon Jouhaux, just coming back from a concentration camp, opposed this development and gathered around the paper "Résistance Ouvrière", renamed the 20 December 1945 ''Force ouvrière''.
In May 1947, the Communist ministers were excluded from the government led by
Paul Ramadier
Paul Ramadier (17 March 1888 – 14 October 1961) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France in 1947.
Biography
The son of a psychiatrist, Ramadier graduated in law from the University of Toulouse and started his profess ...
, a Socialist, because they were incapable to quell the ultimately victorious strike in the biggest factory in France, the Renault car plant in Boulogne-Billancourt. Tensions rose again when Moscow ask the PCF to boycott the Marshall Plan in September.
The CGT split in three in November 1947 : Jouhaux and four confederal general secretary leaves officially the confederation and create the CGT-FO the 12 April 1948. The
Federation for National Education
The Federation of the National Education (''Fédération de l'Education nationale'' or FEN) was a French federation of teaching trade union, unions.
It succeeded the General Federation of Teaching (''Fédération générale de l'enseignement'') ...
(FEN) stayed neutral and independent from the two confederations.
Along with a majority of autonomous syndicalist who believe deeply in the Amiens Charter, the ranks and files of the confederation were also composed of a reformist right-wing linked with the SFIO, and a revolutionary left-wing with anarcho-syndicalist like
Hébert and revolutionary syndicalists like
Monatte.
In February 1958 the African branches of FO became an independent organization, ''
Confédération Africaine des Syndicats Libres-FO''.
[ Wallerstein, Immanuel Maurice.]
Africa: The Politics of Independence and Unity
'. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. p. 188[Meynaud, Jean, and Anisse Salah Bey. ]
Trade Unionism in Africa
'. Lond: Methuen, 1967. p. 166
In 1963, when
André Bergeron became leader of the Confederation, the links between FO and the
French Section of the Workers' International
The French Section of the Workers' International (, SFIO) was a major socialist political party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the present Socialist Party.
The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representativ ...
(SFIO) became distended. Indeed, if Bergeron was an SFIO member for a short period, he was also a hardcore reformist who believed firmly in "social agreement" with the employers and the De Gaulle right-wing government. He helped create a social security offices with them, that FO presided.
In 1968, FO was one of the
Grenelle agreements signatory. Fearing an integration of the unions into the state, they were the only confederation to call for a "No" vote in the 1969 referendum, which lead to the defeat and the final resignation of De Gaulle from power.
The link of the reformists, inside the confederation, with the socialist movement was completely broke in 1972 with the creation of the Socialist Party, because the main syndicalist core of this party was coming from Christian syndicalism, either the CFTC or the secular CFDT. After
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former First ...
's election, FO presented like the only independent trade-union confederation.
In 1989,
Marc Blondel was elected leader of FO, against the will of Bergeron. He wanted to preserve the independence of the confederation. Supported by the radical minority, he adopted a more combative attitude. In this, he participated in the 1995 social conflict against
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 c ...
's plans for welfare reform, and improved relations with the CGT. In consequence, FO lost the precedence of social security offices for the benefit of the
Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail.
In 2003, Blondel called for a general strike against the plan of pensions reforms. Then, he let his function to
Jean-Claude Mailly. FO participated in the 2006 campaign against the ''
Contrat première embauche''. In April 2018, Pascal Pavageau, which presents himself as being part of the historical and traditional Workers' Force trend (independence of trade unions towards the political parties) became the new secretary general.
General Secretaries
*
Robert Bothereau (19481963)
*
André Bergeron (19631989)
*
Marc Blondel (19892004)
*
Jean-Claude Mailly (20042018)
*
Pascal Pavageau (2018)
*
Yves Veyrier (20182022)
*
Frédéric Souillot (2022present)
CIA involvement
The group's ties with the American
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
(CIA) were leaked in 1967 by
Thomas Braden, a former director of covert operations for the agency. In his expose on ''
The Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...
'', Braden wrote of the CGT strike: "Into this crisis stepped
Lovestone">ayLovestone and his assistant,
Irving Brown. With funds from
Dubinsky's
union, they organized Force Ouvrière, a non-Communist union. When they ran out of money, they appealed to the CIA. Thus began the secret subsidy of free trade-unions which soon spread to Italy. Without that subsidy, postwar history might have gone very differently." American influence was never total, and there were disputes between FO leadership and the American representatives (for example, over French colonialism).
Professional elections
FO won 15.81% of the vote in the employees' college during the
2008 professional elections. This is below FO's 18.28% result in 2002. Its highest ever result was 20.55% in 1997.
Affiliates
FO organize 15000 unions, distributed in 103 departemental union and 26 professional federations.
The following federations are affiliated with the confederation:
The
General Federation of Public Servants brings together those federations representing civil servants.
See also
*
Politics of France
The politics of France take place within the framework of a semi-presidential systems, semi-presidential system determined by the Constitution of France, French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "in ...
** Trade unions:
***
French Democratic Confederation of Labour
***
French Confederation of Christian Workers
***
General Confederation of Labour
***
French Confederation of Management - General Confederation of Executives
***
Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques
The Union syndicale Solidaires, Solidaires or Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD) is a French group of trade unions.
Political position
They tend to favor progressive or even radical views and work with the alter-globalization or anti ...
*
Mouvement des Entreprises de France
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Force Ouvriere
International Trade Union Confederation
European Trade Union Confederation
National trade union centers of France
Trade unions established in 1948