Macron, Uber era threaten role of once-powerful French union
Faced with President Emmanuel Macron's labour changes and a digital economy it does not quite grasp, the CGT faces its biggest threat: the possibility of becoming an institution of the past.
Philippe Martinez sits in a black leather chair facing a poster of the revolutionary legend Che Guevara in his top-floor, cigarette-smoke-smelling office on the eastern edge of Paris, contending with his trade union's growing irrelevance to a new generation of workers.
The 56-year-old leader of France's Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT) – which, at the height of its power, could bring the country to a standstill and send shivers down the spines of presidents – is struggling to reach younger workers, draw them into the union movement and tailor collective action to an era of technology and individualism.
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