Georges Seguy, secretary general of the CGT from 1967 to 1982, died – The Point

His name will remain attached to the Grenelle negotiations in 1968. Georges Seguy, who led the CGT from 1967 to 1982, died Saturday at the age of 89. Joviality, his lilting accent, his sense of repartee as much as his tenacity earned him great popularity.

Former resistant and deported, Georges Seguy was succeeded in 1967 by Benoît Frachon at the head of the CGT . It was he who led the union for the Grenelle negotiations in May 1968 before becoming the principal opponent of the trade union field of the governments of the Fifth Republic. In 1982, he had been replaced by Henri Krasucki and left the Communist Party Politburo, the party to which he belonged since 1947.

“He died early yesterday afternoon” of suites a “disease”, told AFP Elyane Bressol, president of the Institute of social history (IHS) of the CGT, of which he was honorary president. The former secretary general of the CGT “was hospitalized for several days in hospital Montargis in the Loiret region.” “He resisted the disease to the end of his strength, but he died of weakness,” she said. “These last two years, the disease has not spared, but remained until recent weeks, a resistant who was interested in the country’s social life and had notice,” according Elyane Bressol.

Officer of the Legion of Honour, he published Le Mai CGT ( 1972), Fight (1975), and resist, Mauthausen in May 68 (2008).

the Left pays tribute

Soon after the announcement of his death, Georges Seguy received the homage of politicians from left and particularly the French Communist Party. The illustrious trade unionist was indeed politburo member of the party until 1982. That is why Pierre Laurent said: “The Communists lost a comrade, a man filled with humanity, dignity, a fighter of the human race” adding that he was losing himself “a friend”.

Meanwhile, Hollande praised the memory of a “sincere man and passionately devoted to social justice” which “throughout his life, embodied offensive unionism “,” ready to engage in struggles but also to negotiate good compromise. ” Manuel Valls has also paid tribute on Twitter “a great figure of unionism and social struggles in our country”, while Myriam El Khomri, Labour Minister expressed his “great emotion”.

from resistance unionism

Born March 16, 1927 in Toulouse in a working class family – his father, communist militant, is responsible for the union CGT railway – Georges Seguy between 15 years as a typesetter in a printing press working for the Resistance.

Member of the clandestine organization young communist, he was arrested by the Gestapo and will be one of the youngest FTP deported from France. Arrived in February 1944 Mauthausen concentration camp (Austria), there remains 15 months.

On his return to France, Georges Seguy between SNCF and actively participates as militant strikes in 1947. Its political and trade union will rise meteoric: in 1954, he was elected to the central Committee of the Communist Party and, only two years later between the politburo. He is only 29 years.

Negotiator Grenelle agreements

In 1961, he became general secretary of the Federation of Railway, one of the most important with those of the metallurgy and EGF (electricity and gas). Entered in 1965 to the Confederal Bureau of the CGT, he succeeded in 1967 Benoît Frachon to the Secretary General. He was just 40 years.

On May 68, these are the barricades, nine million workers on strike, the student revolt, de Gaulle moved. Grenelle during difficult negotiations, Georges Seguy, on behalf of the CGT, faces Georges Pompidou, Prime Minister.

Under the presidencies of Georges Pompidou and Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the CGT, at the height of his power, will conduct an ongoing fight against the contractual policy launched in early 1970 by Jacques Delors, the social adviser to Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas.

in December 2015, Georges Seguy was out of his silence for the case Thierry Lepaon his distant successor forced to resign after a scandal over his lifestyle. In a short article in The Humanity, he exhorted over to “preserve the cohesion of the CGT and its ability to effectively continue the struggle for the defense of workers’ interests.”

After his withdrawal from public life, he had installed in his house Loiret, healing garden and vegetable garden. He had lost his wife in March 2015 and had been living in a retirement home.