This year, the harvest dates in Champagne ran from Tuesday September 5 to Friday September 15, 2023. A few days after the harvest in the region, the floor opened “two investigations for human trafficking”, revealed the vice-prosecutor of Châlons-en-Champagne, Céline Fassey, to theAFP. A testimony relayed by the Huffington Post Saturday September 23, 2023. These investigations would aim “several companies” of the region. The CGT regional committee, for its part, mentioned on Friday September 22 the opening of an investigation by the Châlons-en-Champagne public prosecutor’s office. The union had denounced, in an open letter to the prefect of the Grand-Est, “intolerable methods concerning the use of seasonal workers”. Indeed, in this correspondence, “the order givers” were denounced because they were “calling on subcontractors in a cascade without any control, endangering the lives of seasonal workers from West Africa”. Situations of “malnutrition” and of “precarious health” were also identified by the CGT regional committee.
“Everyone close their eyes…”
In Champagne, four grape harvesters died in September 2023 due to extreme heat, the prosecutors of Reims and Châlons-en-Champagne revealed on Thursday September 14. The Marne prefecture had also ordered the closure of collective accommodation for grape pickers in Nesle-le-Repons on Friday September 15, 2023. The accommodation had been judged “unsanitary” And “unworthy”indicated our colleagues from Huffington Post. These successive tragedies open the debate on the working conditions of seasonal workers. In this region known worldwide for its sparkling alcoholic drink, “taking temperatures into account by adjusting working conditions must be implemented”, added the Marne prefecture. Indeed, “global warming is pushing […] to put pressure on the grape pickers. But it is rather the tree that hides the forest of working conditions”accused the general secretary of CGT Champagne Reims, José Blanco, at Huffington Post Friday September 15. The trade unionist denounced the service providers who “grow like mushrooms” and who bring in workers from Eastern Europe, to whom we would not give “neither to drink nor to eat”. “With these service providers, we lower the cost of labor, we increase our margins, and we can shift responsibility for working conditions to each other”he lamented, before showing clairvoyance: “Everyone turns a blind eye because it’s the most expensive grape in the world”. For its part, the Peasant Confederation, a left-leaning agricultural union, requested on Friday September 22 a “vigilance and improvement plan for working conditions and remuneration” for seasonal workers. So far, no person has been implicated.