CGT leadership

The conference of the CGT, one of France’s two largest union confederations, has backed the leadership of Bernard Thibault, re-electing him as general secretary and supporting the policy document presented by the outgoing executive by a majority of 78.5%.

There was, however, continual criticism at the conference which ran from 7 to 11 December, with a minority of delegates describing Thibault’s approach as reformist.

Fears of a hostile reaction led Thibault to withdraw an invitation to François Chérèque, general secretary of France’s other large confederation, the CFDT. Chérèque had been expected to speak as a sign of the improving relations between the two bodies.

The conference also heard that at the end of May 2009 the CGT had 654,000 members, 8% down on the 711,000 figure for 2006.