Announced with great fanfare for January 8 on TF1, the return of the old France 3 soap opera More beautiful lifeunder the title More beautiful life, even more beautiful, could it be compromised? On Friday December 8 afternoon, the prospects of such a scenario were seriously receding. However, a strike disrupted the filming of the series this week, as it shut down the production teams in Sète (Hérault) and Saint-Laurent-d’Aigouze (Gard), where the films are filmed. two other daily front page soap operas, Tomorrow belongs to us And Here it all begins.
Came into action on November 15, the protest movement, which affects all kinds of film sets (television films, but also live broadcasts), without distinction of production company or broadcaster (television channel or broadcasting platform). streaming), “been building since September 20”explains Nicolas Yassinski, the deputy general delegate of the Union of professionals in the audiovisual and cinema industries CGT (SPIAC-CGT).
“Between 100 and 150 film sets in France have expressed their demands”adds Gilles Coustex, cameraman on Here it all beginswhere proposals made by management on Friday December 8 afternoon could allow a return to normal on Monday.
No increase in wages “since 2007”
The sector had not experienced such mobilization since 1999 and a four-day strike. This time, a fourth week of mobilization is looming for a movement whose objective is entirely in its name: “+20%”. Or the increase in salaries demanded by technicians, cinematographers, sound engineers, scripts, etc., whose remuneration has not increased ” since 2007 “assures Mr. Yassinski.
“Twenty percent at once may seem like a lot, but if we consider that there has been no revaluation for more than ten years and add the inflation of the last twelve to eighteen month, it’s not that much », adds Mr. Coustex. So, when at the end of November, the producer unions (USPA, SPI, SATEV, SPEC) proposed an increase to 1er January 2024 of 5% for salaries below 1,000 euros per week and 3% for those above (5.6% and 8.6% if we add the 2023 increases), the protest did not only gets stronger.
“Between 3% increase and 20%, there is room for compromise”, believes Mr. Yassinski. The proposal to condition these increases on a decoupling of the collective agreement, which would apply differently depending on the branch of activity (fiction, documentary, streaming, live performance recording) is strongly rejected. Slightly increased at the end of the week, these proposals once again failed to find common ground.
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