In June 2002, Jacques Freidel, the president of France's CGPME small and medium-sized employers' organisation, resigned after an internal dispute lasting several months. The organisation's deputy president will see it through the interim period until a new president is elected. The context of the resignation is continuing changes in the pattern of employers' representation.
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In June 2002, Jacques Freidel, the president of France's CGPME small and medium-sized employers' organisation, resigned after an internal dispute lasting several months. The organisation's deputy president will see it through the interim period until a new president is elected. The context of the resignation is continuing changes in the pattern of employers' representation.
In June 2002, following an internal crisis that had been brewing for several months, Jacques Freidel resigned as president of the General Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (Confédération générale des petites et moyennes entreprises, CGPME). Set up in the immediate post-World War II period, CGPME had only three presidents prior to Mr Friedel (Léon Gingembre, René Bernasconi and Lucien Rebuffel - all of whom were seen as charismatic). Mr Freidel was elected in February 2000, in the midst of a difficult internal situation, when the previous incumbent, Mr Rebuffel, stood down following a brush with the courts (FR0003145N).
After his election in 2000, Mr Freidel apparently restored order to CGPME's management practices. However, he had more difficulty projecting himself externally, especially in relation to the media, and vis-à-vis the other employers' associations.
Over the past few years, the Movement of French Enterprises (Mouvement des entreprises de France, MEDEF) has largely managed to create the impression that it can represent all types of employer - for example, it has led the battle against the 35-hour week legislation (FR0001137F), labelled itself the 'champion of enterprise' (FR9811140F) and launched the 'industrial relations overhaul' project of negotiations with trade unions over key issues (FR0102134F). Mr Freidel made a strategic choice to back the positions adopted by MEDEF in order to maintain an employers' united front, without ever trying to stand out, either on an individual or organisational level. Moreover, owing to a dual membership option, many small CGPME-affiliated businesses are also members of the relevant sectoral federation of MEDEF. Two major MEDEF federations are therefore considered to enjoy a considerable degree of influence in CGPME - the Union of Metal Manufacturing, Mining, Engineering, Electrical and Metal Equipment (Union de entreprises métallurgiques et minières, UIMM) and the French Building Federation (Fédération française du bâtiment, FFB).
Another recent change in employers' representation has been the steady transformation of the old 'area employers' organisations' of the National Council of French Employers (Conseil national du patronat français, CNPF) - which became MEDEF in 1998 (FR9811140F) - into dynamic regional MEDEF branches. This development has noticeably weakened CGPME at grassroots level.
While CGPME, under the leadership of Mr Freidel, opted to support MEDEF, the third main employers' organisation, the Craftwork Employers' Association (Union professionnelle artisanale, UPA) and its president, Robert Buguet, instead chose to follow the path of proclaiming independence, going as far as to sign an agreement in December 2001 with the five representative trade union confederations on the development of the social dialogue in the small-scale artisanal production and services sector (FR0201143N). This agreement was recently extended to cover the whole sector by the Minister of Employment (FR0206101N), against the wishes of MEDEF and CGPME.
Mr Freidel's poor media profile ultimately weakened his position, and rekindled old squabbles. A 'CGPME defence committee' was formed, and among its demands was the resignation of Mr Freidel. During CGPME's general assembly on 26 June 2002, an absent Mr Freidel announced his resignation through a letter read out to the delegates. The deputy president, Jean-François Roubaud, was elected by a two-thirds majority to head the organisation during the interim period until another general assembly is held in three months' time. Mr Roubaud, a close associate of Mr Freidel, received the support of representatives from the metalworking and construction industries.
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