“We’ve been here for three weeks. We are not going to stop the strike and leave with nothing. We are really motivated to make things happen”says Cédric, controller in blade maintenance at Ratier-Figeac, an aeronautical subcontractor which employs 1,300 people in Figeac in the Lot. “At some point, you have to get it into your head that prices have skyrocketed”insists this employee who earns 2,080 euros gross per month.
“However, I was happy to join a big company and I had not negotiated my salary. But today, it’s a whole, and I wonder if the game is worth the candle.he adds, before specifying. “We are paid less than at Airbus. Yes, but housing prices are no longer affordable. We had to, with my wife, move away forty kilometers from Figeac to find a house. »
This 37-year-old employee, who joined this manufacturer of propellers and cockpit equipment (mini-sticks, rudder pedals, throttles) in 2014 as a temporary worker, joined the protest movement started on June 17 by blue-collar workers for the increase in their salary. Every morning, from 7:30 a.m., Cédric joins the ranks of angry employees who gather in the main courtyard, behind a banner on which the words “poorly paid, overworked, despised” are written in black letters on a white background, blocking the production lines of the equipment manufacturer, owned by the American Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of the Raytheon Technologies group.
Historical
The refusal of the management to place the salary increase at the top of the priority subjects of the meeting of the social and economic committee (CSE) set fire to the powder. The CGT, the main trade union organization, left the discussion table on June 17 to inform the employees gathered outside the buildings. In the process, they voted in a general assembly for an indefinite strike to demand 300 euros gross per month.
The management, for its part, did not give in, sticking to its position: it provides for a salary increase of 2.8%. Not enough for CGT, given the good results of the group: a net profit of 9 million euros in 2020, 36 million euros in 2021. “The negotiations are successful for the group’s other sites. However, we, for seven years, we have not had any increase in the floor salary ”regrets Fabien Trayaud, operator at the machining center and CGT union representative.
In order to find a way out of this first conflict, historic in its duration, the employees “changed their tune”1er July, reviewing their proposal: they are now demanding a written commitment so that seniority is calculated on the base salary and no longer on the hierarchical minimum income. “We lose between 150 and 200 euros every month”, justifies the union representative. Another proposal put on the table in order to engage, again, discussions with the group: an increase of 60 euros to 140 euros per month calculated according to the amount of wages. “The employees are exhausted. We must find a solution “, insists Mr. Trayaud. Contacted by the worldmanagement did not respond to our request.