Unions are likely to be considered in France to be a factor of conflict. As Marxist tradition is very implemented in France, as well as in Italy, there is often a logic of fight between classes. However this approach has to be fought. If communism has been vanquished today and is not considered to be a real, serious and legitimate alternative to capitalism, the dominant neoliberal system we live in today is proving year after year the mediocrity of its results.
Unions have always have an important role to make things advance. But they have been seen as a danger to the dominant order. Even during the French revolution, the Le Chapelier law dissolved corporations, that had a terrible effect on the kind of cooperatives that existed in the campains. It was an important milestone to the absolute domination of great industrial owners in factories in the XIXth century, without any counterpower. It has been a long fight for these unions to be recognize again.
The approach of this article is not anti-capitalist. This system is a tool that is amoral, but not necessarily immoral. It depends on how it is used. However union are important to exist, to the extend it creates an equilibrium of powers. In every field it is necessary to have this equilibrium into companies, that are strategic motors of the system. The role of unions in companies should be consider more as, in France, we consider too often that politics prevails over the economy, while, on the contrary, it is the reverse that is happening. Moreover it is possible to say that those unions have to be more present in companies, as it is the case in Germany for instance.
Giving more role in unions is really necessary to build a better system. Giving more culture of social dialog and negociation is a necessary step. To this extend it is possible to say that unions are necessary to build a more sustainable system. Those unions are necessary with the construction of a more sustainable system. The importance of a better social dialog is going hand to hand with the development of a better social and solidarity economical system ; it is also too bad that unions are not more united and coordinated internationally. For those reasons it is possible to say that building a better system is necessary.
Social and solidarity economy can support a better role of unions in the economy. It can be a background approach that can help this process. Social and solidarity economy is a tradition that aims at creating a human and efficient economic system ; it is the application of the theories of utopist socialists, for instance, like Saint Simon or Fourier, who promoted the reconciliation between the classes. That is the reason why the social and economical approach contributed to implement cooperatives, limitation of dividends to redistribute money for investment purposes… This approach is giving a lot of interesting tools to make a successful economy in the long run. This alternative form of capitalism should win to be more implemented and taken into consideration. However it looks not to developed enough. That is the reason why the role of unions can be considered compliant to the principles of social and solidarity economy.
The recent pension reform is showing that there is a real fracture between unions and the government. It is not surprising for the CGT, which is more radical, but concerning the CFDT, which is traditionally more versed into social dialog, it looks more revealing. The fact that Elisabeth Borne, who is a center left political figure, didn’t succeed to implement this dialog, show that it is really hard to implement this kind of approach. But at the end of the course, this too conflictual approach favors the most the dominant neoliberal system, who is more likely to develop in this conflictual context. That is the reason why unions more open to dialog, but who are able to defend better the interests of everyone in the company should be more implemented. But the road will be long before it will be the case.
The observer 