After Gabriel Attal announced a new reform for the country's unemployment insurance system, CGT General Secretary Sophie Binet was sharply critical of the French prime minister's plan. She announced that her union would not be signing the government's agreement for "a new pact for working life," negotiations for which end on Monday, April 8.

The government no longer has any arguments to defend a fifth reform against the unemployed. Justifying it in the name of public debt doesn't hold, since the accounts of Unédic [the government association that manages unemployment insurance] are in the black. Worse still, the government is contradicting its previous position. In 2022, it explained that it was necessary to have a "countercyclical" unemployment insurance scheme, with protection levels falling when growth improves and rising when the economy worsens.

At a time when job losses have been multiplying in recent months, the powers that be are now assuring us that we need to further tighten benefit rules. As for the idea that lowering unemployment benefits is the only way to create jobs, it's no more credible, since no economist has established such a cause-and-effect relationship.

It's all lies, it's all marketing. There are no concrete measures to provide better support for the unemployed. Advisers at France Travail [formerly Pôle Emploi, the French public employment agency] are being asked to focus their energy on control and sanctions, instead of helping people to build their career plans. This is causing a great deal of suffering among teams, as they are being asked to perform work that is contrary to their public service mission of advising and supporting.

This latest attack on unemployment insurance will affect all employees. The aim of it is to force people to accept any job and to generalize small jobs. The government is inspired by the old policies of Gerhard Schröder in Germany and Margaret Thatcher in the UK.

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