The current number two of Medef takes the lead in the race for the next presidency. The candidate for the presidency of the employers’ organization Patrick Martin won strong support on Thursday: the powerful Union of Metallurgical Industries and Trades (UIMM).
« We consulted our members and it came out unanimously that they were all going to bring their sponsorships to Patrick Martin », current number two of the Movement of French companies (Medef), declares the president of the UIMM, Eric Trappier, in a daily interview The echoes.
« Of course, everyone is then free to sponsor another candidate if they wish. But clearly, the support of the UIMM goes to Patrick Martin, to bring out a consensus in the business world “, underlines the boss of Dassault Aviation. In addition to the UIMM, whose president claims 42,000 members among companies, Patrick Martin could also receive support from the French Building Federation (FFB).
Four candidates in the race
Four candidates have so far declared themselves to take the helm of the first employers’ organization in France, led since 2018 by Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. Once the 150 sponsorships have been collected before May 6, they will then have until July 6 to campaign and convince the 1,100 employer members called to vote.
The current number two “Today checks off all the factors to be a very good president of the Medef “, Slipped Wednesday the president of the FFB, Olivier Salleron, during a press conference. However, his federation will not officially decide until the end of May.
In addition to his current right-hand man Patrick Martin, given favorite, are also candidates the vice-president and spokesperson of the Medef Dominique Carlac’h, the delegate president of the French Federation of security Pierre Brajeux and the president of the Medef Alsace Olivier Klotz.
The announcement of the UIMM comes the day after an interview with Dominique Carlac’h on BFM Business, in which she regretted the absence of debates between the suitors. Speaking in Les Echos, Pierre Brajeux judged that, “ at the moment the election is totally locked and that it favored Patrick Martin. Main rival of Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux in 2018 and figure of the French industry, Alexandre Saubot announced at the end of March that he would not launch again in the race for this presidency.
Bad time for a union campaign
Many fear that the spectacle of a campaign – with low blows, and positions taken against each other – will weaken the organization. ” Especially at a time when it is clear that companies can become the target of social discontent “Slips a member of the Executive Council, the decision-making body of Medef.
In question: the record profits of the large groups last year – 21 billion for LVMH, 19 billion for Total, 10 billion for BNP Paribas, 5 billion for L’Oréal …, revive the controversy over the sharing of profits with the wage earners and political pressure to tax superprofits. Inflation obliges, the tensions in the companies multiply on the subject of the rises in wages. Not to mention, the government’s pension reform, which wants to bring the decline in the legal age from 62 to 64, which arouses strong opposition in the population.
Thus, the Medef is no longer popular with part of the population and is becoming small, unlike employee unions such as the CGT or the CFDT, which have been highly publicized for several months in the fight against the pension reform. .
(With AFP)