The freezing cold did not dampen their determination. On the Sanofi production site in Maisons-Alfort (Val-de-Marne), the thermometer shows one degree outside in mid-December. But the employees on strike, gathered in front of the entrance to the company, seethe with anger. “We will not give up, the management will have to take into account our fed up »loose Barbara, 47, immediately approved by her neighbor.
For the past month, this employee has been on strike almost every day alongside her colleagues to demand a salary increase. “After years of no collective increase, we struggled to get 1% last year. A crumb for a large group like Sanofi, which generates more than 37 billion euros in turnover.Christophe is indignant.
A few weeks before retirement, the production technician, “thirty-eight years of house”came to support his companions for his last ” last stand “. Wrapped up in thick coats, hats screwed on their heads, there were about fifteen of them that day meeting around the barbecue set up on the sidewalk.
To the surprise of the unions
“Don’t be fooled by numbers, many employees support our fight”, assures Frédéric Dos Santos. And the union representative of the CGT to recall the ” serial “ of the strike movement “unpublished” which has been agitating the leading French pharmaceutical group for four weeks. The social thermometer of the tricolor flagship ignited during the mandatory annual negotiations (NAO) on wages.
On November 14, the day before the first meeting with management, the CGT called on all unions (CFDT, FO, Sud, CFTC, CFE-CGC) and Sanofi employees in France to go on strike. The first strike pickets then began. The next day, a hundred employees demonstrate in front of the group’s French headquarters, in Gentilly (Val-de-Marne). At the negotiating table, the inter-union is demanding a collective increase of 10% for 2023 to respond to inflation, a “Macron bonus” of 10,000 euros and the hiring of two thirds of the 3,700 employees on precarious contracts (CDD , interim, apprenticeship contract).
In Maisons-Alfort, the manufacture of syringes of Lovenox, an anticoagulant used in the treatment of thrombosis, would be behind by five million boxes
“For nine years, Sanofi had practically cut off the floodgates of collective increases. There were only individual and automatic increases. In view of inflation during this time, wages are completely out of the way”, explains Mr. Dos Santos. In the process, the management made a first proposal, rejected by the employees. New sites joined the strike, which took hold over time, even to the surprise of the unions.
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