They gathered at Quai André-Citroën in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, before marching behind a banner asking: “Dignity and recognition for essential workers, when is it? »
Several hundred people – “ More than a thousand people », according to the organizers –, employees in the sectors of cleaning, cleanliness, private security, personal services, mass distribution, trade, hairdressing, funeral, health, social sectors and medico-social, agrifood, or category C agents of the public service, demonstrated, Thursday, February 3, at the call of the CFDT. These representatives of “essential workers” who contributed to the smooth running of the economy at the height of the health crisis have come together to demand wage increases.
“We are here to weigh in with the employers of these different professional branches and with public employers. It is absolutely necessary to open negotiations in all professional branches, in all companies, for real salary increases”said from the top of a truck the number one of the CFDT, Laurent Berger.
While some negotiations resulted in substantial increases (+ 16% in the hotel, cafe, catering sector, + 5% in landscapers), Mr. Berger castigated the sectors that remained “inert”such as cleanliness, private security or hairdressing, to meet the needs of employees.
Divided union front
This mobilization of the CFDT came a week after a day of strikes and demonstrations at the call of an inter-union CGT-FO-FSU-Solidaires, which brought together between 89,000 and 150,000 demonstrators in France. Asked about the “regret” expressed by certain members of the CFDT that she did not join it, Mr. Berger affirmed that he did not want to enroll in “global logics where we do not know exactly what we are asking for”. “A little catch-all logic is not for us”he justified.
In the demonstration, Lyes Berkane, a 58-year-old security guard, held up a sign on which was written “my sign is rotten, my salary too”. “Security agents live in precarious conditions (…) During the pandemic we worked a lot, we even have employees who died in hospitals (…) We are trying to enter into negotiations, but the employers do not want (…) If there is no progress, the movement will harden”he warned.
Gwenaëlle Monnier, union representative at Auchan, aged 41, deplored the “promises” not held. “We were told that we were an essential profession, we fed the population, and we are still not recognized” in terms of salary, she told Agence France-Presse.