FO and the CGT have filed a strike notice for January 31, a new day of interprofessional mobilization against the pension reform.
SourceAFP
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La CGT and Force Ouvrière, the two main ski lift employee unions, filed Monday, January 23 a strike notice for January 31. They call on employees in this sector to join the national movement against the pension reform project, but also protest against the modification of the unemployment insurance scheme for seasonal workers. Although “unlimited”, this strike notice does not mean that ski lift employees will not return to work at the end of this day, Éric Becker, FO general secretary of ski lifts and seasonal workers, told AFP.
According to the latter, the CGT has also filed its own notice, but the union could not be reached immediately. Between them, the unions obtained nearly 100% of the votes in the last elections in the ski lift sector, which employs some 17,000 seasonal workers in France.
“The only way to be heard by the government”
“The lifts will operate normally from the next day: we do not want to further weaken companies already in difficulty,” said Éric Becker. “This unlimited notice” aims, according to him, to respect the legal deadlines to “allow seasonal workers to participate in the next day of mobilization against the pension reform, which should be decided for one day in February”.
The January 31 strike is also for seasonal workers “the only way to be heard by the government, while we have been denouncing the precariousness they are experiencing for months, with the reform of their unemployment insurance system”. , explained Mr. Becker. “We can no longer recruit, so much has this reform penalized seasonal workers”, whose unemployment benefits are sometimes halved, he lamented. “We are told that we are taking holidaymakers hostage, but it is the seasonal workers who are. »
READ ALSO“It is urgent to anticipate the end of the ski resort model”Since 1er December 2021, the minimum working time to recharge the rights to unemployment benefit for seasonal workers is six months out of the last 24 months for at least six months of compensation. Previously, it only took 4 months out of the last 24 months to top up rights for 4 months.
According to an impact study by Unédic, this change to 6 months should lead, during the first year of application, to delaying the opening of rights to 475,000 people, in particular young people or seasonal workers who multiply short contracts. Since its entry into force, many of them have converted or settled down, even though seasonal tourism workers are among the most sought-after professions, according to Pôle emploi.
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