Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
group of trade unions.
Political position
They tend to favor progressiveProgressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
or even radical
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
views and work with the alter-globalization
Alter-globalization
Alter-globalization is the name of a social movement that supports global cooperation and interaction, but which opposes the negative effects of economic globalization, feeling that it often works to the detriment of, or does not...
or anti-globalization
Anti-globalization
Criticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....
movement.
The Group of 10 and the SUD Unions are part of the European Social Forum
European Social Forum
The European Social Forum is a recurring conference held by members of the alter-globalization movement . In the first few years after it started in 2002 the conference was held every year, but later it became biannual due to difficulties with finding host countries...
and the World Social Forum
World Social Forum
The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization...
.
Most of the SUD trade-union practice a syndicalism of struggle (syndicalisme de lutte), like factions of the CGT
Confédération générale du travail
The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.It is the largest in terms of votes , and second largest in terms of membership numbers.Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 The General...
, FO
Force Ouvrière
The General Confederation of Labor - Workers' Force is one of the five major union federations in France. In terms of following, it is the third behind the CGT and the CFDT....
and the CNT
Confédération nationale du travail
- History :The CNT-F or National Confederation of Labour is a French anarcho-syndicalist union.It was founded in 1946 by Spanish anarcho-syndicalists in exile, and former members of Confédération Générale du Travail-Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire , its name is derived from the Spanish CNT, the...
. That place it in opposition to the reformist or negotiation unions: the CFDT, CFTC
Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens
-External links:*...
, CFE-CGC and UNSA
UNSA
UNSA may refer to:* Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, a university of about 26000 students in Nice, France.* National University of St Augustin of Arequipa , a university in Arequipa, Peru....
.
Many members of SUD are also members of the New Anticapitalist Party
New Anticapitalist Party
The New Anticapitalist Party is a French political party founded in February 2009. Its name was originally intended to be temporary; a vote on the name being held at the founding congress on 6–8 February 2009, where NPA won over "Revolutionary Anticapitalist Party" with 53% of the vote.The party ...
, but there are also communist, socialist, ecologist, and anarchist sympathizers within the union.
History
The Group of 10 was created in 1981 by autonomous unions, such as the SNUI, or the SNJ, organizing journalists.Most of these were unions who had refused to choose a side in the 1946 split between the reformist Workers' Force and the communist CGT.
But several of those unions decided to join UNSA - an alliance of moderate Unions - in 1993, soon after Sud-PTT
Sud-PTT
Sud-PTT is a French trade union created in fall 1988 after the exclusion of more radical elements from the CFDT-PTT. CFDT is a union generally considered as the most open for negotiation and reforms. It is sometimes criticized for this approach, sometimes by its own members...
joined the Group of 10.
The first SUD union was created in 1988 after a split within the CFDT
Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail
-External links:*...
.
The CFDT expelled several unions from the health and the post and telecommunications federations located in the Paris region because they supported wildcat strikes self-organized by the workers. The expelled post and telecommunication unions decided to create a new federation, Sud-PTT
Sud-PTT
Sud-PTT is a French trade union created in fall 1988 after the exclusion of more radical elements from the CFDT-PTT. CFDT is a union generally considered as the most open for negotiation and reforms. It is sometimes criticized for this approach, sometimes by its own members...
, which got encouraging electoral results a few months later.
SUD defends social movement unionism
Social Movement Unionism
Social Movement Unionism is a trend of theory and practice in contemporary trade unionism. Strongly associated with the labour movements of developing countries, Social Movement Unionism is distinct from many other models of trade unionism because it concerns itself with more than organising...
by working with several movements: illegal immigrants, unemployed people and so forth.
The successes of SUD in La Poste
La Poste
La Poste may refer to:* La Poste, the postal service of France* La Poste Suisse, the French name for Swiss Post* La Poste, the French name for De Post - La Poste - Die Post of Belgium* La Poste Tunisienne, the Tunisian postal service...
and France Télécom
France Télécom
France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...
convinced other unions from the left wing of the CFDT to create similar unions in their professional sectors and several new SUD unions were formed following the mass public sector strikes of November and December 1995 and May and June 2003.
SUD unions are now important in the health care sector, education, transportation (including the SNCF
SNCF
The SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network...
and Air France
Air France
Air France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
), cultural institutions such as the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
, as well as in some companies such as Michelin
Michelin
Michelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal tyre brands...
, Thales
Thales Group
The Thales Group is a French electronics company delivering information systems and services for the aerospace, defense, transportation and security markets...
, or even students with Sud-étudiant.
Professional Elections
Solidaires won 3.82% of the vote in the employee's college during the 2008 professional elections, its best result to date. It had won 1.51% in 2002.See also
- Politics of FrancePolitics of FranceFrance is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, in which the President of France is head of state and the Prime Minister of France is the head of government, and there is a pluriform, multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is...
- Trade unions:
- Workers' ForceForce OuvrièreThe General Confederation of Labor - Workers' Force is one of the five major union federations in France. In terms of following, it is the third behind the CGT and the CFDT....
- French Confederation of Christian WorkersConfédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens-External links:*...
- French Democratic Confederation of Labour
- General Confederation of LabourConfédération générale du travailThe General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.It is the largest in terms of votes , and second largest in terms of membership numbers.Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 The General...
- French Confederation of Management - General Confederation of Executives
- Workers' Force
- Trade unions:
- Mouvement des Entreprises de FranceMouvement des Entreprises de FranceThe Mouvement des Entreprises de France or MEDEF is the largest union of employers in France. It was formerly known as the Conseil National du Patronat Français or CNPF .It has more than 700,000 member firms, 90% are from SME, with fewer than 50 employees...