the essentials After the call for an unlimited strike at the SNCF, another action is being prepared, within the Leroy-Merlin company. La Dépêche du Midi spoke with Bernard Vigourous, central Force Ouvrière union delegate and employee at Balma, to understand the motivations of this movement.
A social movement is being prepared for Wednesday, November 13 in Leroy-Merlin stores. Bernard Vigourous, central union delegate of Force Ouvrière, explained to us the reasons which pushed the unions to call for this action and the form that it will take. “We are asking local stores to stop working on the same day, for about an hour,” he explains. He specifies that “action will be carried out in parallel at headquarters”.
The union leader hopes to involve a majority of employees in the movement, but at present, only Force Ouvrière and the CGT have planned to mobilize. “We will see from the action at headquarters if the CFTC and the CGT join us but they do not, a priori, intend to follow in the stores,” predicts Bernard Vigourous.
Negotiations considered unsatisfactory
The starting point of this protest? According to the trade unionist, these are “the results of the NAOs (the obligatory annual negotiations which relate to salary policy and which must take place in all companies with more than 50 employees, Editor’s note) which were quite catastrophic since we barely obtained 1.1% increase.” Internally, the remuneration of shareholders which reaches “1 billion in three years” annoys, while this increase of barely more than 1% represents, according to Bernard Vigourous’s calculations, “20.21 million euros”.
Another central point of the protest: “the refusal of any notion of recognition of seniority”. The unions are seeking to obtain “an agreement on a seniority bonus”. According to them, this would make it possible to resolve the problem of the “turnover rate” (the percentage of change of employees in the company, Editor’s note) which is “around 17%”. A figure deemed “catastrophic” by Force Ouvrière and which for the organization is synonymous with the company’s desire to “get rid of a certain number of employees”.
Bernard Vigourous puts forward the total of “1,000 jobs lost this year in the company”. Behind these demands, the desire that “those who have worked at Leroy-Merlin for 5, 10, 15, 20 years stay, in particular because they bring real value for the company and for the customers”.
On seniority, an end of inadmissibility
In a letter addressed to trade union organizations, the human resources director of Leroy-Merlin France showed himself closed to the idea of including measures on seniority. He believes that “this is not in the culture of Leroy-Merlin”, also putting forward an argument of “fairness” towards more recent employees.
The context is favorable to the protesters since the Mulliez group is already under pressure from a social movement at Auchan, another brand owned by the family. If there is currently no desire to unite the two movements, the unions hope to be able to benefit from media coverage reinforced by the presence of two simultaneous movements. Especially since they are aware that “the Mulliez family hates media coverage of this kind”.
On the follow-up to the movement, Bernard Vigourous imagines several scenarios. But what will really be decisive is “the response of employees in stores”. Another determining factor, “a beginning of openness, a signal of attachment to the teams sent by the leaders” and finally, “the media response”. Defeatist, the union delegate concludes: “I hope for much more than I expect.”
