Low Wage Strikers of Vertbaudet Childcare in France Demand Salary Increase

Published on : 24/05/2023 – 15:24

They drink coffee on folding chairs in front of their warehouse in Marquette-lez-Lille (Nord), near a police van. No more tents on the picket line: it was evacuated a week earlier due to “public order disturbances”.

United since March 20 behind CGT delegate Manon Ovion, a 30-year-old order picker, they are demanding a net increase of 150 euros per month.

A “vital” sum for these often poorly qualified women, who mainly receive the minimum wage, sometimes even after 40 years of service, in a context of high inflation.

“I deprive myself a lot to avoid being too in the red”, summarizes one of them, Anaïs Vanneuville, mother of a 5-year-old boy. In his hands, a tupperware serves as a strike fund.

“I have three days (leave) of seniority, but no seniority bonus”, laments Christine, 54, embroiderer for 17 years at Vertbaudet. She wonders: “What is the boss putting on the table so that I have a slightly more dignified retirement in seven years?”

Violente intrusion

She, who has never been unionized, has just joined the CGT. According to Manon Ovion, the union has registered about fifty members since the start of the strike.

Although in the minority against FO and the CFTC, who signed the wage negotiations (NAO) in March, the crux of the conflict, the CGT is leading the movement.

The visit in mid-April of the new general secretary of the union, Sophie Binet, who came to call for a boycott of the sign, brought a spotlight. Other left-wing personalities followed one another on the picket line, including Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the latest, who came to express his “absolute solidarity” on Monday.

But behind this media waltz, tensions have been growing since the start of the strike.

After the arrival of Sophie Binet, the management attributed to elements outside the company a violent intrusion into its premises.

The CGT denounces the brutality of a police officer against a striker during the evacuation of the picket line and “a beaten up comrade” in police custody.

An investigation by the prosecution is also open after violence reported by a CGT delegate, who was allegedly beaten by people posing as “plainclothes police”, according to the union.

“It’s not the prison”

In this very tense climate, the management accuses the strikers of being “instrumentalised” and accuses them of forcing the 250 non-strikers to “work in degraded conditions (…) because of blockades and repeated violence”.

“This strike has gone much too far”, abounds one of them, Caroline Binot, 22 years old at Vertbaudet, who describes employees with fear in their stomachs in the face of a possible intrusion.

“It’s not the prison and we are still 17% above the Smic, we have a 13th month”, we launch at FO, in support of non-strikers, who “are threatened morally, physically “when they enter the site.

CFTC delegate Alexandre Lemahieu says he understands the movement but judges that “the situation would have been worse” without the NAO agreement, which notably provides for a bonus of 650 euros in 2023.

On their picket line, the women present swear that they will hold out “as long as it takes”. They again swept away new proposals from their management on Monday.

One of them, Aurore Tonnelle, hopes that her fight will motivate “other women who are afraid and who don’t know how to fight for their rights”.

© 2023 AFP