An inter-union union bringing together SUD-PTT, the CGT, FO and the CFTC called La Poste tellers to strike on Tuesday, April 2, to defend their working conditions. SUD-PTT even launched a call for a strike by all 160,000 employees of the company. The CFDT, the leading union among postal workers (24.5% in 2022), did not join the movement.
While tellers are called upon to work in increasingly vast territories, the inter-union denounces “the unilateral decision of the employer to authorize longer travel to several offices”explained Alain Pelletingeas, of FO, to Agence France-Presse; “up to 60 kilometers”said Pascal Frémont, from SUD-PTT.
The tellers, or “customer representatives”, were called to gather together, particularly in front of the group’s various managements. Alain Pelletingeas hopes that “30 to 40% of staff concerned” will mobilize.
“Discounted salaries”
More broadly, SUD-PTT appeals to all La Poste employees. “While the company, 100% owned by the public authorities, sees its turnover and operating margin increase, La Poste staff are undergoing reorganizations, transfers and pressures of all kinds”, lamented the union in a press release last Friday. To his eyes, “the governance of La Poste is responsible for low wages, rampant job insecurity and the deterioration of working conditions and access to public service”.
“Part of the activity is subcontracted. We inevitably have the image of our cousins at France Télécom, now Orange, where all production activity was subcontracted. We are afraid of that”argued Pascal Frémont.
Its union recalled on Friday that La Poste had been the first French company condemned, at the end of 2023, for breach of its “duty of vigilance”, due to the working conditions of people without French papers in its subsidiaries. The group appealed. In 2023, La Poste suffered a drop in its net profit of 49%, to 514 million euros. Turnover amounted to 34 billion euros, an increase of 2.4%.