Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail

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**CFDT**

French Democratic Confederation of Labour
Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail
Founded	1964
Members	875,000
Country	France
Affiliation	ITUC, ETUC, TUAC
Key people	François Chérèque, secretary general
Office location	Paris, France
Website	www.cfdt.fr

The Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT or "French Democratic Confederation of Labour") is one of the five major French confederations of trade unions, led since 2002 by François Chérèque. It is the largest French trade union confederation by number of members (875,000), but only comes second after the Confédération générale du travail (CGT) in voting results for representative bodies.

1 History
2 Famous members
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

It was created in 1964 when a majority of the members of the Christian union Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens (CFTC) decided to become secular. The minority kept the name CFTC.

At first, under the lead of Eugène Descamps, the CFDT presented like a Social-democratic confederation close to the Unified Socialist Party (Parti socialiste unifié or PSU) which was led by Pierre Mendès-France. It came to terms with the CGT, which was dominated by the Communist Party. This alliance took a part in the May 68 crisis. Then, the CFDT was auto-gestionary.

In 1974, many PSU and CFDT members joined the Socialist Party (Parti socialiste or PS) led by François Mitterrand. Behind Michel Rocard, they formed an internal opposition called "the second left". They abandoned the auto-gestionary project and advocated an alignment on the European social-democracy. In the same time, under the lead of Edmond Maire, the CFDT cut its links with the CGT.

In the 1980s, after François Mitterrand's election and his choice to renounce to Socialist economic policies, the CFDT appeared like a pro-governmental organization. Besides, the Economy Minister Jacques Delors is a former founder of the CFDT. This one lost a lot of members and voters. In the 1990s, under the lead of Nicole Notat, it choiced a strategy of independence towards PS. In this, it supported Alain Juppé's plan of Welfare State reform. It replaced FO like "main partner" of employers and right-wing governments, and to the presidence of social security offices.

In 2003, the support of the new CFDT leader François Chérèque to the plan of pensions reform caused an internal crisis. Some CFDT members left the confederation and choiced the CGT or the autonomous trade unions SUD. However, the CFDT participated with the others confederations to the 2006 conflict about the Contrat première embauche.