Rue Ambroise Croizat

Ambroise Croizat, born January 28, 1901 in Notre-Dame-de-Briançon (Savoie) and died February 11, 1951 in Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine), was a French trade unionist and politician, member of the French Communist Party. He was general secretary of the CGT metal workers' federation and deputy for the Seine. As Minister of Labour from November 1945 to May 1947, he set up the general social security system on French territory, in collaboration with the senior civil servant Pierre Laroque. Nicknamed the "workers' minister", Ambroise Croizat's name remains attached to the major laws relating to the general social security system: in charge of its organisation (against the capitalist social security system set up throughout the 19th century), administrative organisation of the funds and elections to the boards of directors of the funds and civil servants' schemes. His influence was also felt in projects concerning works councils, the status of staff representatives, collective agreements, prevention and compensation of accidents at work, and the family benefits system. He died of lung cancer at the age of 50. The Communist Party gave him a grand funeral: his body was exhibited at the Maison des métallurgistes (now the Maison des métallos) and then at the CGT headquarters; a million mourners accompanied him to the Père-Lachaise cemetery where he was buried.