Dassault Aviation workers blocked seven of the nine factories in France of the aeronautical and armaments group, Thursday, December 9, demanding a rise in wages. According to the CGT, the factories concerned were in Biarritz, Saint-Cloud, Seclin, Biard, Argonay, Martignas-sur-Jalles and Argenteuil. In the latter, where part of the fuselage of Falcon and Rafale aircraft is manufactured, nearly 200 employees have stopped work and blocked the site.
Highlighting “A full order book”, the unions are demanding a salary increase of 200 euros net per month on the base salary which amounts to 1,700 euros. Damien Jouanne, CGT delegate, explains the reasons for the social movement, the first of this importance since 2000:
“Today there is discontent among the workers, the little hands. The order book is full. There are already fifteen years of work, in addition to the new contract. It is only at Airbus that there are so many orders. “
“Each plane that leaves the factory is 100 million”
The contract in question is the sale, signed a week ago, of 80 Rafale fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates for a sum which is expected to reach 17 billion euros for the entire contract.
“We always delivered the planes on time, but today we are angry. There is work and money at Dassault, but our CEO prefers to force-feed the shareholders ”, declared Emmanuel Dumoulin, another trade unionist inserted in the CGT. “We make the planes, not them. “
One of these “little hands” is Olivier, 29, interviewed by AFP during this day of strike. With his 1,750 euros net, he “Earns too much to have social housing but not enough to access private housing”, so he lives with his parents.
“When I joined Dassault, I thought it was the best company in the world, but it’s not really the case. We sometimes find ourselves patching up tools instead of buying new, while each plane that leaves the factory is 100 million. “