Real inflation, that of everyday consumer goods, is well over 10%. Energy prices
are exploding, threatening individuals and destabilizing the industrial fabricwith the specter of a violent recession. War tensions are exacerbated as is theclimate crisis. Hard context for wage struggles. ---- The current sequence ofrising wage disputes does not date back to the start of the school year inSeptember. The health, medico-social and social sectors have experiencedmobilizations for more than a year that have led to the so-called Ségur wageagreements. The fear of discontent has even forced the government to raisegeneral, although very insufficient, salaries in the civil service, calling intoquestion the wage freeze that dates back many years.question of tacticsWage struggles are not spontaneously conducive to an overall movement. If civilservants can recognize themselves on a unifying national slogan around the indexpoint, in the private sector, company by company, the situations are alldifferent. A boss can easily defuse a conflict by playing on bonuses, uniondivisions, corporatist shop competitions, individual raises. Today, bosses areeven taking the lead in increasing wages for fear of losing their employees in acontext of " big resignation " and poaching of " talent " by their directcompetitors. In large groups, negotiations are torn between the local andnational levels. Even within a collective agreement, employees who have acquired,for all sorts of reasons, higher than the branch salary grid do not see anybenefit during the general increases in the minimums by profession, which remainbelow their grid. of business.The striking moment is itself very fragile. It takes both the conditions ofdiscontent and the courage " to go for it ", as well as the collective confidencethat victory is possible. It is also necessary to overcome the fear of " sinking" the box when the results are already not great. Finally, you need a window ofopportunity, a large order book, urgent delivery, no stocks to sell. The momentwhen the " yellow " are on vacation, even sick. The strike is a school of tacticsand fine understanding of the balance of power. Several months before the summer,it was the rise in the price of fuel that was the trigger for many wage disputesin the private sector. And then there was the inflation on all the productsessential to daily life. It is not only in large companies that employees havetaken action. Even the support unions were not left out. This is to say thenovelty of the situation !Bonuses against wages, the bosses counter-fireMany small and medium enterprises experienced their first strike. And sectorslittle, or not at all, accustomed to actions on wages have decided to act. Tensand tens of thousands have experienced their strength through grassroots unity,as well as democratic general assemblies. Because one of the peculiarities of theconflicts in question is that in general they were, or they are, in the majority.For employers, this "spillover" effect had to be stopped as soon as possible. Fornow, it's a waste of time. Faced with a situation unknown for several years,faced with the growing concern of employers and human resources departments, thegovernment was quick to cobble together a backfire. It is not the immediateincrease in the income of employees that was being fought here. But he had tofind a way to avoid, or at least limit as much as possible, the increase in thebase salary. Because once this increase has been won, it's another story to comeback to it... The government therefore very quickly released texts to promoteprofit-sharing, as well as the allocation of bonuses higher than the " Macronbonus ". Once the storm has passed, zero bonus and zero profit-sharing for nextyear, this is a possible objective for employers.It is for all these reasons that the calls for a general strike for wages do notmake much sense, and are hardly heard. At best, activists in a club with no uniontradition can rely on a national day to train their colleagues. But in theexperienced sectors of the proletariat, both private and public, it is well knownthat such a day does not make it possible to win. Thus, putting your company onstrike during the mandatory annual negotiations (NAO) must be the basic objectiveof trade unionists. The essential gymnastics to forge the employee collective.But the NAO is any time of the year. Thus, several companies, after a firstwinning strike several months ago, have returned to the conflict since inflationcontinues its upward course.The call for a general strike against government reform, such as on pensions, orfor an emblematic and unifying demand really makes sense. But even the increasein the Smic only has one for a small part of the workforce. This period ofinflation translates into a significant impoverishment of tens of millions ofpeople. It strikes beyond employees, retirees and the poorest and most precariousyoung people. It is therefore one source, among many others, which can makepossible a mobilization that would extend.All and all together?Because from time to time, too infrequently on the scale of a militant life, itis general anger that turns into a general strike, sweeping away the militantroutine, brutally shaking bureaucrats and revolutionaries. The most violenttornadoes are also the least predictable. This is why, while continuing dailyunion activity, we must prepare ourselves, and above all prepare our colleaguesfor the unpredictable. Jean-Yves (UCL Limousin) Pessac (Gironde)https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Le-mercure-monte-pour-les-salaires_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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