France's General Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Real Employers (CGPME) elected Jacques Freidel as its chair on 8 February 2000. His election took place against a backdrop of something of an "identity crisis" for this employers' association.
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France's General Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Real Employers (CGPME) elected Jacques Freidel as its chair on 8 February 2000. His election took place against a backdrop of something of an "identity crisis" for this employers' association.
The General Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Real Employers (Confédération générale des petites et moyennes entreprises et du patronat réel, CGPME), whose roots lie in the opposition of certain employers to agreements reached in 1936, and which was set up in October 1944, aims to bring together "true" employers in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - the "real" employers of its title - rather than managers. It comprises 400 sectoral and intersectoral federations, to which are affiliated more than 3,500 organisations, both sector-based and local.
CGPME has recently been facing internal tensions, which have manifested themselves in the organisation's great difficulty finding a place for itself in the world of employers' representation in the wake of the 1998 transformation of the National Council of French Employers (Conseil national du patronat français, CNPF), into the Movement of French Enterprises (Mouvement des entreprises de France, MEDEF) (FR9811140F). In its new articles of association, MEDEF has strengthened its local structures in order to embrace all entrepreneurs, regardless of the size of their companies. This new direction has overturned the status quo in the world of employers' associations. Many companies are affiliated to both employers' confederations, as CGPME provides specific services to them. Labelled "a pressure group within a pressure group" (in "Le parti des patrons", Henri Weber, Paris (1986)), CGPME has always fought to obtain its independence. MEDEF's new strategy may noticeably limit this aim. Many CGPME leaders felt that the then chair, Lucien Rebuffel, had not succeeded, among other matters, in responding effectively to the MEDEF's plan to take over the field of SMEs (reported in the La Tribune newspaper on 9 November 1999).
Mr Rebuffel has also been involved in two legal battles. Legal action has been taken against him over granting a monopoly to a life insurance company to provide cover for CGPME members, while he is also involved in a case relating to" fictitious voters" in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, where he is a local councillor for the RPR party. To avoid damaging CGPME's public image, he stood down from his position in October 1999, and announced that he would not be standing for re-election.
On 8 February, CGPME elected a new chair, Jacques Freidel, who was not a member of the CGPME's Paris-based leadership. He was elected with 54.39% of the vote. His rival, Roger Pellat-Finet, president of the CGPME in the Isère département, received 45.61%. Head of a medical equipment company in Tours, Mr Freidel was the local president of the Union of Metal Manufacturing, Mining, Engineering, Electrical and Metal Equipment (Union de entreprises métallurgiques et minières, UIMM ), one of the most powerful sectoral federations in MEDEF. Immediately after he was elected, Mr Freidel sought to distance himself from the latter: "The CGPME is the CGPME, and the other employers' union is the other employers' union. We will be fighting for CGPME," he stated, stressing that it was normal that UIMM, representing the largest group of CGPME's members (40,000 companies with fewer than 50 employees) should be "keeping a close eye on events at CGPME" (quoted in the Les Echos newspaper on 9 February 2000).
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Eurofound (2000), CGPME elects new chair, article.
