France's National Federation of Independent Unions (UNSA), founded in 1993, held its third national conference in January 2002. Currently a grouping of mainly public sector unions, UNSA is seeking to improve its presence in the private sector when the next elections for members of industrial tribunals are held in December 2002, and consequently to assert its representative status.
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France's National Federation of Independent Unions (UNSA), founded in 1993, held its third national conference in January 2002. Currently a grouping of mainly public sector unions, UNSA is seeking to improve its presence in the private sector when the next elections for members of industrial tribunals are held in December 2002, and consequently to assert its representative status.
When it was set up in 1993, the National Federation of Independent Unions (Union nationale des syndicats autonomes, UNSA) comprised independent public sector trade unions, each of which had its own strong occupational and union identity. The Federation of National Education (Fédération de l'Education nationale, FEN), now UNSA-Education, was at that time the dominant partner in the new union grouping (FR0101118N). Since then, UNSA has radically altered its internal organisation and has broadened its membership to include the private sector, particularly since 1998.
However, 80% of UNSA's claimed membership of 360,000 is still comprised of public sector employees, and teachers account for a third of the total. Moreover, based on the 2000 workplace election results of employee representatives in the three branches of the civil service (hospitals, local government and central government), UNSA claims to be the fourth-placed civil service union with 11.7% of the vote, behind the General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT) (22.4%), the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) (19.4%) and the General Confederation of Labour-Force ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail-Force ouvrière, CGT-FO) (17.7%).
UNSA has phased in its strategy of broadening its membership to include the private sector. When it contested the 1997 elections for members of industrial tribunal s (Conseils de prud'hommes - FR9710171F), the result was a poor 0.74% of the vote, and UNSA did not run candidates either in the whole country or in all the electoral colleges (FR9712185F). Since 1997, UNSA has extended its recruitment and union organisation into the private sector, particularly bringing former CGT-FO members into its decision-making bodies at its second national conference, held in 1998. The UNSA aims to overtake the French Christian Workers' Confederation (Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens, CFTC) (with 7.52% of the vote in 1997) at the next industrial tribunal elections in December 2002, mainly thanks to a sharp rise in the number of UNSA slates across the country.
UNSA feels that the decree of 31 March 1966, which established the indisputable presumption of the representative status (FR9909104F) of five union confederations - CFDT, CFTC, CGT, CGT-FO and the French Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff-General Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff (Confédération française de l'encadrement-Confédération générale des cadres, CFE-CGC) - is hindering its development within the private sector. Similarly, it is challenging the rules on public funding for trade unions in France (FR0112114N).
UNSA's broadening of its membership to include the private sector and desire to establish itself as a intersectoral organisation has generated internal debate on the independence of its component unions, and on its organisational options (relating to the competitive or complementary nature of occupational and industry-level organisations).
During its third national conference, held in Lille on 15-18 January 2002, UNSA reiterated its stances on the above issues. On other matters, rather than opposing economic globalisation, it plans to fight for a form of globalisation that is 'more oriented toward solidarity and social welfare and with a greater degree of regulation'. In terms of European-level issues, UNSA - which has been a member of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) since 1999 (FR9905186N) - will promote 'EU social convergence criteria'. In France, UNSA wants to see better relationships established between the French unions: CFDT, CFE-CGC and CGT were represented at the conference. Finally, UNSA voted to renew the membership of its decision-making bodies during the conference. Alain Olive was re-elected as general secretary.
Το Eurofound συνιστά την παραπομπή σε αυτή τη δημοσίευση με τον ακόλουθο τρόπο.
Eurofound (2002), UNSA seeks greater representativeness, article.
