Workforce elections held at La Poste and France Télécom
Published: 27 November 2000
In October 2000, employees at France Télécom and La Poste - France's national telecommunications and postal services operators - elected their representatives on the companies' administrative boards and on various joint committees. The result of these elections showed an increase in support for the independent SUD trade union at the expense of CGT. CFDT made gains, whereas CGT-FO lost ground and support for CFTC and CFE-CGC remained stable.
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In October 2000, employees at France Télécom and La Poste - France's national telecommunications and postal services operators - elected their representatives on the companies' administrative boards and on various joint committees. The result of these elections showed an increase in support for the independent SUD trade union at the expense of CGT. CFDT made gains, whereas CGT-FO lost ground and support for CFTC and CFE-CGC remained stable.
On 24 October 2000, employees at France Télécom and La Poste elected their representatives on the companies' administrative boards and their delegates on joint committees.
The context of deregulation
In line with European Union policy on the deregulation of postal and telecommunications industries, the French parliament passed the law on telecommunications and postal utility organisation on 2 July 1990, which was supplemented by legislation on the state-owned France Télécom company on 26 July 1996. Together, these laws created two separate companies for postal services and telecommunications - La Poste and France Télécom - out of the Ministry of Posts, Telegraph and Telecommunications. These two companies have different statuses: France Télécom is a public limited company, with the majority of capital held by the state; while La Poste is a commercial and industrial state-run body (établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial, EPIC).
Parliament supplemented the change of legal and economic status with a change in staff status. Consequently, both companies, which originally employed only civil servants, may now recruit employees covered by collective agreements, in other words under private law. Recruitment of such non-civil service staff is just an option for la Poste, but it will now be official policy at France Télécom. Indeed, starting in 2002, France Télécom will no longer recruit civil servants.
Consequently, the workforces of both companies, which previously had a very definite identity, are now in the throes of change. In 1998, of la Poste's 308,119 workers, 236,409 were civil servants, and 71,710 were private law employees. In 1999, of France Télécom's total workforce of 136,099, 122,726 were civil servants and 13,373 were private law employees.
Changing the status of both companies required parliament to provide for employee representation on two new bodies. In addition to the existing representation of civil servants in the two parent companies on joint administrative committees (commissions administratives paritaires, CAP s), the law provides for: the representation of workers covered by a collective agreement in the two parent companies on joint consultative committees (commissions consultatives paritaires, CCP s) and: the representation of all employees in both the parent companies and subsidiaries on the administrative boards of both La Poste and France Télécom (TN9809201S).
The workforce elections of representatives on the CAPs, CCPs and administrative boards in October 2000 took place against a backdrop of employee fears that both companies might be completely privatised and lose their current status.
It should also be noted that agreements on introducing a 35-hour working week have been reached in both companies relatively recently. At La Poste, the agreement was signed by four trade unions (FR9902158N) - CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC and CGT-FO- while only CFE-CGC, CFTC and CGT-FO signed the deal at France Télécom. It appears that whether or not unions signed the agreements had an impact on the outcome of the elections.
Results of administrative board elections
The elections at both France Télécom and La Poste were characterised by a marked drop in turn-out. At La Poste, 78.3% of those eligible to do so voted in 2000, compared with 84.9% in 1995. At France Télécom, turn-out dropped to 72.5% from 80.8% five years before.
The figures below illustrate the trend in support for the various trade unions in the elections of employees at France Télécom and La Poste in 1991, 1995 and 2000. SUD-PTT did not have representative status in 1991.
CGT = General Confederation of Labour ( Confédération générale du travail ); CFDT = French Democratic Confederation of Labour ( Confédération française démocratique du travail ); CFTC = French Christian Workers' Confederation ( Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens ); CGT-FO = General Confederation of Labour-Force ouvrière ( Confédération générale du travail - Force ouvrière ), CFE-CGC = French Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff-General Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff ( Confédération française de l'encadrement - Confédération générale des cadres ); SUD = Solidarity, Unity, Democracy ( Solidaire, Unitaire, Démocratique ).
SUD - formed following a split from CFDT - made major gains at La Poste, where it became the second best supported union (with 21% of the vote), ahead of CGT-FO (18.92%). It also made some less significant headway at France Télécom where, with 27.42%, it is running just behind CGT with 27.98%. CGT experienced a serious loss of support in both companies but remains the best-supported union at both, with a considerable lead at La Poste. CGT-FO lost considerable ground. It obtained only 18.92% of votes cast at La Poste. This represents a drop of three percentage points over 1995, to stand at more or less the same level as CFDT. At France Télécom, CFDT is ahead of CGT-FO, which garnered only 13.85% of the vote. CGT-FO, which was the second largest union at La Poste at the 1991 election, has now slipped into third place. CFDT succeeded in checking its slide. It won 18.29% of the vote at La Poste (representing a one point drop in support from 1995) and 20.48% at France Télécom (a gain of 2.4 points). Support for the two remaining unions, CFTC and CFE-CGC, remained stable at 5.2% and 2.4% respectively at la Poste and 6.3% and 3.9% at France Télécom.
Results of joint committee elections
Table 1 below provides the results of the 2000 and 1997 elections to the joint administrative committees (CAPs) and joint consultative committees (CCPs) at France Télécom.
| 2000 | 1997 | |
|---|---|---|
| CFDT | 19.53 | 17.75 |
| CFE-CGC | 02.59 | 01.96 |
| CFTC | 05.96 | 05.28 |
| CGT | 28.25 | 29.07 |
| CGT-FO | 13.53 | 13.97 |
| UNSA | 01.73 | - |
| ASCIT | 00.40 | 00.55 |
| SUD | 28.02 | 25.79 |
UNSA = National Union of Independent Unions ( Union nationale des syndicats autonomes ); ASCIT = Trade Union Association of Senior Managers and Engineers ( Association syndicale des cadres supérieurs et ingénieurs ).
Table 2 below provides the results of the 2000 and 1997 elections to the CAPs and joint CCPs at La Poste.
| 2000 | 1997 | |
|---|---|---|
| CFDT | 17.45 | 17.23 |
| CFE-CGC | 01.65 | 00.91 |
| CFTC | 04.72 | 05.19 |
| CGT | 33.50 | 34.76 |
| CGT-FO | 17.55 | 19.63 |
| UNSA | 01.09 | - |
| CSL | 02.57 | 03.41 |
| SUD | 18.74 | 16.37 |
| FNSA | 02.75 | 02.51 |
CSL = Confederation of Free Trade Unions ( Confédération des syndicats libres ); FNSA = National Federation of Independent Trade Unions ( Fédération nationale des syndicats autonomes ).
Overall, the La Poste and France Télécom joint committee elections demonstrate the same trend as the administrative board elections. Thus, SUD has gained ground, while CFDT also made some less significant headway. At the same time, both CGT and CGT-FO have lost support. At France Télécom, SUD is now very close to CGT. At La Poste, CFDT and CGT-FO are fighting for third position behind SUD and CGT.
Differing results according to employee status
The recent changes in the workforces of the two companies merits breaking down the 2000 election results on the basis of the status of the employees - whether they are civil servants or private law employees covered by collective agreements. The two groups appear to vote differently.
Turn-out among private law employees was lower. In addition, at France Télécom, although CFDT obtained 18.9% support from civil servants, which put it in third place, it garnered 26.6% of the votes of private law employees (up 2.9 points on 1997). This put it ahead of SUD, which received 19.5% of the votes of private law employees (up 2.9 points) and CGT with 18.6% (down 3.7 points). Similarly, CFE-CGC, which registered relatively strong support (13.2% - down 9.8 points on 1997) in the CCP elections among private law employees, failed to reach 2% in the CAP elections among civil servants. The large percentage of managerial and professional staff (close to 45%) who are covered by collective agreements is part of the reason for this phenomenon. However, even among civil servant managers, most voted for CFDT.
Voting trends at France Télécom also differed according to whether employees work for the parent company or a subsidiary. Voter turn-out is lower in subsidiaries. CFDT garnered more votes in the subsidiaries (28.27%) than the parent company, despite seeing its support slipping from the 1995 level (down 6.83 points). CGT won 23.91% of the vote in subsidiaries (up 3.59 points) and CFE-CGC won 14.03% (down 7.6 points).
At La Poste these trends are also apparent, but they are less obvious. CGT remains the best-supported union in subsidiaries and in the CAP elections.
Union reactions
At La Poste, SUD-PTT believes that its gains indicate "a rejection of the company's management and industrial relations policy". In the opinion of CGT, the results confirm "the need for grass-roots trade unionism", and that it will have to "be more in tune with [its] members". CGT-FO believes that "the election results demonstrate the breakdown of collective bargaining policy [CGT-FO signed the 35-hour week agreement at la Poste] and demonstrate the concerns of employees." In the view of CFDT, "the development of unionisation at La Poste played a role in the union's good showing."
At France Télécom, SUD sees its gains as positive but at the same time acknowledges that it will have to "achieve a greater presence in subsidiaries" and overcome the hurdles it faces among managerial and professional staff and private law workers. CGT said the "ballot was close" although it emerged as the best-supported union. The union believes that the dismantling of part of the technical services division at France Télécom, where it had strong support, did not affect its showing. CGT-FO stated that, given the union's role as an "industrial relations regulator ... the loss of support has clearly set off alarm bells for the leadership."
Commentary
At both La Poste and France Télécom, changes in employee status and the opening up of their sectors to competition have not for the time being challenged the major presence of those unions that traditionally negotiate only reluctantly - CGT and SUD took the majority of votes. Increased support buttresses SUD's approach and indicates a rejection of management's bargaining policy.
Nevertheless, the unions cannot ignore the difference in voting patterns along employee status lines. In the future, this will be a major issue, which could potentially completely change the trade union situation in these two companies. (Simon Macaire, IRES)
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2000), Workforce elections held at La Poste and France Télécom, article.
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