The Union syndicale Solidaires, Solidaires or Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD) is a French group of
trade unions
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
.
Political position
They tend to favor
progressive or even
radical views and work with the
alter-globalization or
anti-globalization movement.
The Group of 10 and the SUD Unions are part of the
European Social Forum and the
World Social Forum.
Most of the SUD trade-union practice a syndicalism of struggle (''syndicalisme de lutte''), like factions of the
CGT,
FO and the
CNT. That places it in opposition to the reformist or negotiation unions: the
CFDT,
Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens (CFTC),
CFE-CGC and
Union nationale des syndicats autonomes (UNSA).
Many members of SUD are also members of the
New Anticapitalist Party
The New Anticapitalist Party ( , NPA ) is a far-left political party in France founded in February 2009. The party launched with 9,200 members and was intended to unify the fractured movements of the French radical Left, and attract new activ ...
, but there are also communist, socialist, ecologist, and anarchist sympathizers within the union.
History
The Group of 10 was created in 1981 by autonomous unions, such as the SNUI, or the
SNJ, organizing journalists.
Most of these were unions who had refused to choose a side in the 1946 split between the reformist
Workers' Force and the communist
CGT.
But several of those unions decided to join UNSA - an alliance of moderate Unions - in 1993, soon after
Sud-PTT joined the Group of 10.
The first SUD union was created in 1988 after a split within the
CFDT.
The CFDT expelled several unions from the health and the post and telecommunications federations located in the Paris region because they supported wildcat strikes self-organized by the workers. The expelled post and telecommunication unions decided to create a new federation,
Sud-PTT, which got encouraging electoral results a few months later.
SUD defends
social movement unionism by working with several movements: illegal immigrants, unemployed people and so forth.
The successes of SUD in
La Poste and
France Télécom convinced other unions from the left wing of the CFDT to create similar unions in their professional sectors and several new SUD unions were formed following the mass public sector strikes of November and December 1995 and May and June 2003.
SUD unions are now important in the health care sector, education, transportation (including the
SNCF
The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...
and
Air France
Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...
), cultural institutions such as the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
, as well as in some companies such as
Michelin
Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...
,
Thales
Thales of Miletus ( ; ; ) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic Philosophy, philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. Thales was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Seven Sages, founding figure ...
, or even students with Solidaires étudiant-e-s, syndicat de luttes.
Professional Elections
Solidaires won 3.82% of the vote in the employee's college during the
2008 professional elections, its best result to date. It had won 1.51% in 2002.
See also
*
Politics of France
** Trade unions:
***
Workers' Force
***
French Confederation of Christian Workers
***
French Democratic Confederation of Labour
***
General Confederation of Labour
***
French Confederation of Management - General Confederation of Executives
*
Mouvement des Entreprises de France
External links
Official site of SolidairesOfficial site of SUD-PTTOfficial site of SUD-ÉducationOfficial site of Solidaires étudiant-e-s
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solidaires Unitaires Democratiques
Trade unions in France
National trade union centers of France
1981 establishments in France
Trade unions established in 1981