Each time he sought to preempt the Medef

18 October 2006, at the Paris headquarters of the Central Agency for social security organizations (Acoss). All social partners met to elect the President of the Urssaf network. The business world is boiling because both its ranks candidates compete, one under the colours of the Medef, the other under those of artisanal Professional Union (UPA). And it happens that the day before, the third organization of employers, the CGPME, has taken an unreported decision, that to refrain. On learning the news, Denis Gautier-Sauvagnac falls into one of its legendary anger. In the early morning, a few hours of voting, the Chief negotiator of the Medef, President of the Union of industries and professions of metallurgy (UIMM), casts on his phone to threaten the leader of CGPME: "If you do not vote for the candidate of the Medef, I leave the CGPME.". The UIMM is the first component of the Confederation, just as it is of Medef. Nothing done there. Result: against all odds, the UPA candidate is elected in the first round. Small employer Chronicle has enriched a decisive episode.

Two years previously, in October 2004, the General Confederation of small and medium-sized enterprises and employers real it is its official name had shown independence. At five-yearly elections to the Chambers of commerce and industry, she had presented many candidates against those of the Medef, pent-up farm in some departments. Is it to say that the CGPME changed Maryse Dumas, Confederal Secretary of the CGT, traced the "turning point" in 2003: "During the negotiation of the agreement on continuing training, the CGPME we had sought to find solutions adapted to SMEs." For the first time, it was a real will to exist.

Skirmishes with Laurence Parisot

"The CGPME sees itself today as a social actor full, it supports most of the Medef spare wheel" confirms an expert. An attitude that seems to be strengthened since the election of Laurence Parisot, President of the management movement, in July 2005. Itself at the head of an SME, the Ifop poll Institute, the patron saint of the patterns has the term "small business" in the mouth. It is not surprising that the Confederation now feels in head-on competition with the Medef. A year ago, it thus marked its difference in the renegotiation of the Unedic agreement. While Laurence Parisot excluded any increase in employer contributions to unemployment insurance, its President, Jean-François Roubaud, was prepared to release the ballast. Finally, an intermediate solution will be found. More recently, when the number one of the Medef has invited unions to a "social deliberation", it had on the presence of its employer partners but she "forgot" to send them an invitation, so that the leader of CGPME says having knowledge of the date of the meeting "by the newspaper. In any case, on 23 October, he is is not embarrassed to speak at length under the fun gaze of Union leaders, detailing his vision of the labour market while that day, Laurence Parisot does want to talk about that method.

This is not the result of happenstance. Indeed, some note No change: "The CGPME has always been our interlocutor for logic to deal with the problems of small business", says the Chairman of the CFTC, Jacques Voisin, when a counsellor at Matignon observes: "by tradition, it is autonomous and, on the merits, it is in unison of the Medef.". They are not quite right. As if in the past the defender of SMEs already sought to their place in the Sun, it remained consistently in the wake of the CNPF, the ancestor of the Medef, whatever its successive Presidents have said, the men often charismatic and rather strong in mouth. Terms of its history, the Organization appears therefore today much more free in the business landscape.

Founded in 1944 by Léon ginger, a manufacturer of metal articles, CGPME actually at birth is a branch of the CNPF. For years, the garage owner René Bernasconi, second President in title, will serve on the Executive Board of the CNPF, then led by Yvon Gattaz. Died in October, at the age of ninety, he will remain the symbol of the golden age of the CGPME. His successor, the heritage contractor Lucien Rebuffel, he will be more rebellious, launching at every turn: "Chirac told me...". ","Must be that I speak to Chirac... ". "to show its direct relationship with the policy. Nevertheless, links crossed between the two organizations persisted into the 1990s. On the ground, their delegates, coexist in "employers unions".

But now. In 1998, to combat the 35 hours, Ernest-Antoine Seilliere transforms the CNPF in Medef and decided to decline its new sign in all departments. "Employers unions" are doomed to disappear and the CGPME has more choice: she gradually left his partner to create its own territorial bodies. Rupture is consumed. "The timing was difficult but saw the opportunity to enter a new place, between the Medef and the UPA", recalls Marylise Lebranchu, then Minister of the SMEs of Lionel Jospin.

An unequal territorial mesh

Inevitably, the CGPME enters a period of turbulence which leave traces: even today, his own, very strong territorial mesh in Rhône-Alpes and the DOM - TOM, powerful in Ile-de-France and the Pays de la Loire, remains weak in Brittany and d'Azur. Some places, cohabitation with the Medef has always course today, but most of the time

under the banner of the federations of the metallurgy or the building. It then adds a succession crisis. Elected President in 2000, Jacques Freidel is soon challenged by a part of the base, which alleges... be subservient to the Medef. A Committee for the safeguarding of the CGPME doctrine is established and a former Vice-President, Roger Pellat-Finet, eventually obtain his departure. It was while emerges Jean-François Roubaud, a Council of Ile-de-France contractor at the head of five companies of plumbing-heating. "He was very lucid about the situation, and with a certain elegance, it quickly made consensus," remembers his communications adviser, Thierry Saussez. Its credo The leader must raise the debate and not manage impulses of its members.

A little legible structure

The opinions are unanimous: Jean-François Roubaud was able to get out of the Pierre poujade CGPME. Installed in an old-fashioned building of the 1970s, at the foot of the towers of the defence, his Office opens on the Seine and the pont de Neuilly. On the walls, photos of Jacques Chirac, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Renaud Dutreil. Many trophies, also, such as the brotherhood of the Knights of the cheese taste of France. Jean-François Roubaud displays a smiling serenity. Re-elected unanimously for five years, in January 2005, he became an expert in the media, leaving no opportunity to speak to the radio or to go on television trays to alert policies on access of SMEs to public procurement or taxation. In recent months its major fighting had for names "business tax", "tax on company vehicles", "tax assistance to trade and crafts. Each time, he sought to pre-empt the Medef. "The CGPME represents the companies of 20 to 250 employees, it was easier to seize hot topics, note Renaud Dutreil, Minister of SMEs because Medef must continually synthesize between conflicting interests": agri-food and retail, business leaders and bankers, industry and services... "In our provinces, elected officials are in contact with the bosses and CGPME arrives to the pedagogy with the Central Government, it is very useful," said the Senator of the Orne and former Budget Minister Alain Lambert (UMP), which found that Jean-François Roubaud and Laurence Parisot play now "in stereo". "". "At these two, they well cover the spectrum of the French economic fabric", summarizes.

The President of the CGPME has another success: planet SMEs, an annual track that he organized for four years, in June, at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. An appointment that cannot be missed the Government. In the last edition, the 16,000 patterns that shift attended a true departmental ballet. What obscure internal complexities. Because everything is not rosy in the sky of the CGPME. There are many, outdoors, emphasizing "the mystery" of a "strange" structure which is not conspicuous by its transparency. "To attract members, contributions are free," squeal the officials of the Medef. Between the Executive Committee, which does not appear in the articles but takes all the decisions, the Confederal bureau, which meets only twice a year on average, and the bloated Steering Committee, which is the subject of all the intrigues, impossible to know which command actually. "Out of two Jean-François Roubaud and Veysset CGPME Vice-President responsible for Social Affairs, Editor's note, there is no one", was surprised Alain Lecanu, national Secretary of the GSC. Of course, a young Secretary General, Jean-Eudes du Mesnil du Buisson, was poached two years... of the Medef. But the task is immense and, as a friend of the House, "it is only" noted for surveying departments and pass the draft amendments to the Parliament. More feminized that we think, permanent teams are in fact very limited: 35 people in Paris (against 150 to Medef).

20,000 terms

All instances of the CGPME elected are assumed to be a reflection of the national and territorial unions representing industry, trade and services. But, in reality, if the Confederation stands up on the ground that road transport, private security and casinos have recently joined it, it is the UIMM and the French Federation of the building (FFB), two organizations keys of the Medef, who strings. Because it is, by far, the main contributors to an annual budget of EUR 6 million. For the anecdote tells that the UIMM purchases by bundles of copies of "The will", the journal of the CGPME. Officially, the Confederation has three resources: members (EUR 2.5 million) contributions, the funding of vocational training (2 million) and the rents of the properties that it has (1.5 million).

A man of shadow is at the heart of the device, Dominique de Calan. Number two of the UIMM and Vice-President of the National Union of small and medium-sized industries, he gives his opinion on everything. Especially in respect to goodwill of CGPME: warrants. On the 70,000 labour representatives sitting in 500 organizations labor, unemployment insurance, health insurance, pensions complementary CGPME is 20,000. "The business world is not a political party, and a business leader is not elected, it is designated by its shareholders." "We want the maintenance of trade unionism for membership," explains Dominique de Calan, which welcomes the existence of a "pluralist, complementary and not not antagonistic" employers. Has the CGPME reached the age of majority "It is to the Medef that the UDF is the UMP," quips a connoisseur.