February in corporate France is both the month of the presentation of financial results and the month in which management and trade union organisations must close the so-called Négociations Annuelles Obligatoires ("mandatory annual negotiations").

 

Led in the midst of the "yellow vests" social movement in a context where PSA is doing very well and Renault is doing well, one might have expected that after having imposed years of hardship, manufacturers would have given up a little in France and granted the wage increases requested by the unions for 2019.

Indeed, while management is quite happy to grant bonuses that have the great merit of being able to be awarded or not from one year to the next depending on the company's results, and are also exempt from social security contributions, they are reluctant to accept general salary increases.

Conversely, trade unions would like to obtain wage increases that are irreversible and involve an increase in contributions and, therefore, in unemployment or pension rights later.

 

As L'Humanité (French communist daily newspaper) pointed out on Wednesday: