Ambroise Croizat


Ambroise Croizat was a French syndicalist and politician. As the minister of Labour and of Social security, he founded the French Social security system and the retirement system, between 1945 and 1947. He was also the general secretary of the Fédération des travailleurs de la métallurgie CGT.

Biography

Early life

His father, Antoine Croizat, was a blue-collar worker, and his mother, Louise Jeannette Piccino, was a weaver. Ambroise started working in a plant at the age of 13, when his father was drafted in 1914. As a metalworker trainee, he also followed evening classes, and became a toolmaker near Lyon.

Early politics

In 1917, Croizat joined the Young Socialist Movement, and then the Parti socialiste in 1918. He began supporting the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière in the Communist International. He participated in the great social movements of the metalworkers of the Lyon area. In 1920, he joined the Parti communiste, and became one of the leaders of Jeunesses communistes, a political youth organisation, from 1920 to 1928. In 1928, he was named secretary of the Fédération unitaire des métaux. From 1929 – to his death in 1951 – he was a member of the central comity and of the bureau of the federated young communist movement. In 1936, he became general secretary of the Metalworkers' Federation, which then represented 20% of the total CGT members.
During the 1936 French legislative election, he was elected in the second division of the 14th district of Seine. He negotiated the parisian metalworking convention, and, as a rapporteur, he presented the collective agreement to the Chamber.
He was subsequently accused of "having participated in the creation and organisation of the Groupe ouvrier et paysan", and on the night of 7 October 1939, he was arrested. On 20 February 1940, he was ejected from the Legislature, and on 3 April 1940, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, loss of his civil and politic rights, and a fine of 4000 francs. After having been moved between 14 prisons, he was eventually detained during March 1941 in the bagne of Maison Carrée, near Alger. Freed on 5 February 1943, three months after Operation Torch, he was summoned by the CGT to be a member of the consultative commission of the interim government of Alger. After theLibération of France, he again served as an elected official, first in the two constitutive assemblies and then in the National Assembly from 1946 to 1951.
Croizat served as Minister of Labour under the général de Gaulle from 21 November 1945 to 26 January 1946, and Minister of Labour and Social security from 26 January to 16 December 1946 and from 22 January to 4 May 1947.
He participated in the foundation of the Social security system: health insurance, pensions system, child benefit, and broad reform of French labour laws, through the creation of employee representative committees, occupational medicine, regulation of overtime, and a change of statute for miners.

Personal life

Croizat's first wife was Germaine Marie Girod. They divorced and, in 1939, he married Denise Mettetal, with whom he had two children

Death

In 1951, Croizat died of lung cancer. The Communist Party organized his funeral, with visitation at the Metalworkers House He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Contributions

Nicknamed the "ministre des travailleurs", Ambroise Croizat is permanently associated with the major laws concerning Social security in France, notably the creation and administrative organisation of pension funds, and the special officials' treatment.
He also launched projects concerning employee representatives committees, staff representative's statute, collective agreements, prevention and compensation for workplace accidents, and family benefits.

Government functions

Multiple items have been named in Croizat's honor.

Streets