Bernard Thibault - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Bernard Thibault, born in 1959, is the current secretary of the Confédération Générale du Travail

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...

(CGT), a French workers' union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

. He represents the moderate wing of the CGT, as opposed to the more radical wing noted in Marseilles' trade union.

Bernard Thibault was born on February 2, 1959 in the VIe arrondissement

VIe arrondissement

The 6th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. It includes world famous educational institutions such as the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris and the Académie française, the seat of the French Senate as well as a concentration of some of Paris most...

of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, to a family hailing from the Morvan

Morvan

The Morvan is a mountainous massif lying just to the west of the Côte d'Or escarpment in Burgundy, France. It is a northerly extension of the Massif Central and is of Variscan age. It is composed of granites and basalts and formed a promontory extending northwards into the Jurassic sea.-Music:The...

area.

At the age of 15, he entered 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...

apprenticeship centre in Noisy-le-Sec

Noisy-le-Sec

Noisy-le-Sec is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Heraldry:-Transport:Noisy-le-Sec is served by Noisy-le-Sec station on Paris RER line E.-Personalities:*Hassoun Camara,footballer...

, which he left in 1976 with a qualification in general mechanics. He was then hired by 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...

yard at Paris-la-Villette. In 1977, he joined the Confédération générale du travail

Confédération générale du travail

, and was put in charge of the union's "Young workers commission". In 1980, he became secretary of the union in his train yard, and was later elected secretary of the CGT for all rail workers of the Eastern Paris railroad network

Transilien Paris – Est

Transilien Paris – Est is one of the sectors in the Paris Transilien suburban rail network. The trains on this sector depart from Gare de l'Est in central Paris...

.

During the strikes of Fall 1986, he provided the impetus for the start of the strikes and is credited with forwarding the principle of coordinated strikes, which the unions had until then been reluctant to adopt. He promoted integrating non-unionist strikers into the decision process, which was largely left to general assemblies of workers at the local level (a practice that was repeated during the large 1995 strikes). He was at the time considered one of the main figures of the strike and a symbol of the renewal of the CGT.

In 1987, he joined the French Communist Party

French Communist Party

The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...

and, shortly thereafter, the CGT federal office for rail workers. In 1997, he was appointed to the confederal office. During the 46th Congress of the CGT in January–February 1999, he succeeded Louis Viannet as the head of the confederation. He also resigned his national responsibilities in the Communist Party, to fight the idea that the unions were the force driving the party.

Thanks to his comparatively young age, and to the economic recovery in France at the end of the 20th century, he managed to counter the sag in CGT members. The internal tensions in the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail

Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail

-External links:*...

brought about by the Fillon retirement law prompted members to switch unions and reinforce the CGT.

However, Thibault's efforts to push the CGT toward a more reformist stance, as witnessed for instance during the strikes of November 2007, met with resistance within the leadership of the union, which for example did not give a voting directive to its members for the referendum on the European Constitution.

See also