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Laurent Berger
View on WikipediaLaurent Berger (born 27 October 1968) is a French labor leader. He has been the general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT) between 2012 and 2023.
Key Information
Life
[edit]Youth
[edit]Berger is the son of a worker of the Chantiers de l'Atlantique and of a child care assistant.[1]
During his studies, Berger was a supervisor in a high school. He joined the French Democratic Confederation of Labour at that time.[2][3] After he earned a master's degree in history from University of Nantes,[4][5] he became a permanent staff member of the Young Christian Workers (YCW) in 1991.[6] He was the general secretary of the YCW from 1992 to 1994.[1]
He was subsequently unemployed for six months and was intermittently a substitute teacher of history and geography.[3]
Berger was employed by a social insertion association in Saint-Nazaire to help long-term unemployed adults and RMI beneficiaries to find jobs. There, he created a CFDT section and became the staff representative of this association of nine employees.[7]
Union action
[edit]In 1996, Berger became a permanent staff member of the Saint-Nazaire CFDT local union.[7] He worked on employment and youth issues within the trade union.[7]
In 2003, he was elected general secretary of the CFDT regional union of Pays de la Loire[8] and joined the CFDT national office.[1]
On 17 June 2009 he was elected to the Confederal Executive Commission, the leading body of the CFDT,[9] where he was in charge of small business files.[1] After 2010, he was in charge of employment issues, securing career and integration paths. In this respect, he was the CFDT negotiator to state unemployment insurance and to youth employment.[1]
Berger was appointed as the deputy general secretary of CFDT on 21 March 2012.[10]
He was the head of a reflection on the functioning of the CFDT,[11] aimed at bringing the union closer to employees.[12]
After François Chérèque's resignation, Berger was elected as the general secretary by the CFDT national office on 28 November 2012.[13] He was re-elected with 98.31 percent of votes on 5 March 2014 during a CFDT congress in Marseille.[14]
In 2016, Berger supported the Socialist government's labour law reform bill, in contrast with the FO and CGT unions.[15]
In June 2018, Berger was re-elected as the general secretary of the CFDT with more than 90 percent of votes. Under Berger's chairmanship, the CFDT became the largest trade union at union elections in the private sector (2017) but remained the second one at the elections in the Civil Service (2018). On 11 December 2018 Berger tweeted that the CFDT had become the first trade union in France, overtaking the General Confederation of Labour (CGT).[16]
Berger has been the chairman of the European Trade Union Confederation since May 2019.[17]
Opinion on the National Front
[edit]In an interview with Francis Brochet for regional press group EBRA in the aftermath of the 2014 European Parliament election favourable towards the National Front, Laurent Berger stated: "For me, the National Front is always too high: this party (I am not talking about its voters) is a stain on democracy. We have the choice between an authoritarian society that will be into the 'We just have to' and look for a scapegoat, and a more appeased society of dialogue and listening. It is more complicated, but it will always be my choice."[18]
In April 2017, during the 2017 French presidential election, Berger announced he had "clearly taken a stance against Marine Le Pen and published arguments for [CFDT's] militants", even if he did not give any voting instructions.[19]
Publications
[edit]- Laurent Berger, Claude Sérillon, Syndiquez-vous, Le Cherche midi, 2019 ISBN 978-2-7491-6249-2
- Laurent Berger, dialogue with Denis Lafay, Au boulot ! Manifeste pour le travail, Éditions de l'Aube, 2018 ISBN 978-2-815928-01-4
- Laurent Berger, Pascal Canfin, interviews with Philippe Frémeaux, Réinventer le progrès, Les Petits Matins, 2016 ISBN 978-2363832146
- Laurent Berger, Permis de construire, Tallandier, 2015 ISBN 979-1021016460
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "Laurent Berger : biographie express". istravail.com (in French). Archived from the original on 2012-10-28.
- ^ "CFDT : Laurent Berger, "il a les épaules pour"". Le Nouvel Obs (in French).
- ^ a b "Dauphin CFDT". Libération (in French).
- ^ "Laurent Berger : du christianisme social à la tête de la CFDT". Les Echos (in French).
- ^ "Laurent Berger, un coup de jeune à la CFDT". La Croix (in French). November 16, 2012.
- ^ "Chérèque passe le témoin à Laurent Berger". Le Télégramme (in French).
- ^ a b c "Laurent Berger, le dauphin". Le Bien Public (in French).
- ^ "Laurent Berger" (in French). LCI/TF1. Archived from the original on March 23, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
- ^ "CFDT : Laurent Berger, "il a les épaules pour"". Le Nouvel Obs (in French).
- ^ "Laurent Berger nommé n° 2 de la CFDT Laurent Berger à la tête de la CFDT : même François Chérèque confirme !". blog.lefigaro.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 2019-12-12. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
- ^ "Actualité économique". LExpansion.com (in French).
- ^ "La CFDT changera son logo mais restera fidèle à la couleur orange". L'Express (in French).
- ^ "Page 404". cfdt.fr (in French).
- ^ "CFDT : Laurent Berger réélu secrétaire général avec 98,31% des voix" (in French). RTL. June 5, 2014.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Berger: "la CFDT a toujours été taxée d'être trop proche du gouvernement"". BFM Business (in French). September 15, 2016.
- ^ Waintraub, Judith (December 14, 2018). "Laurent Berger, la vraie force tranquille". Le Figaro Magazine (in French). p. 25.
- ^ "Laurent Berger élu à la tête de la Confédération européenne des syndicats". Le Monde (in French). May 24, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
- ^ "Berger : « Le pilotage à vue ne suffit pas »". L'Alsace (in French).
- ^ "Laurent Berger : "Aucun homme providentiel ne peut faire face aux défis actuels"". La Vie (Interview) (in French). April 14, 2017.
Laurent Berger
View on GrokipediaLaurent Berger (born 27 October 1968) is a French trade union leader who served as secretary-general of the Confédération française démocratique du travail (CFDT), one of France's major union confederations, from November 2012 to June 2023.[1][2]
Born in Guérande to a child care assistant and a shipyard worker, Berger rose through CFDT ranks, becoming known for a pragmatic, reformist style prioritizing social dialogue over confrontation.[1] Under his leadership, the CFDT achieved electoral dominance in the private sector in 2017, surpassing rivals and reinforcing its influence in labor negotiations.[3] He was re-elected multiple times, including in 2018 with over 90% support, and extended CFDT's reach internationally by assuming the presidency of the European Trade Union Confederation in 2019.[3][4]
Berger's tenure featured notable achievements in policy influence, such as contributions to labor market flexibilization while advocating worker protections, but also controversies stemming from his willingness to negotiate with governments on reforms like pensions, which some harder-line unions viewed as concessions to neoliberal policies.[5][2] This approach drew criticism from more adversarial confederations like the CGT, yet it positioned CFDT as a key interlocutor in France's social model, emphasizing empirical negotiation outcomes over ideological purity.[6] Following his resignation in 2023, succeeded by Marylise Léon, Berger has continued engaging in economic and social debates, including as director of the Institut Mutualiste Montsouris.[7]