A game of shuffleboard is in full swing in front of Cocotine’s entrance. Between the smoke that escapes from a barrel and the loud music, dozens of people are discussing. Beside them, some cardboard signs warn: “Poor wages”, “Broken down”… This is the first time that we have seen such a scene in front of this Ploërmel (Morbihan) cassery, specializing in the manufacture of egg products which employs 230 people.
“For a large part of the people here, we are at 1,600 euros gross per month, regardless of seniority. With inflation, the price of gasoline, it was no longer possible ”, exhibits Maryline Etienne, line conductor for over twenty-five years. The CFDT union representative with her face lined with freckles was in a dead end “After years of signed agreements for what? Peanuts ”.
“I have a family, children, and I wonder how I will do for their studies later with 1,400 euros net per month. »Grégory Simon, 35 years old
Her colleagues pushed her, at the beginning of November, to disengage in order to denounce the deteriorated situation within the company, “Me, the little union delegate not very demanding”. Almost all joined her from day one and demanded a 5% wage hike.
Grégory Simon, a tall slender brunette of 35, was one of the launchers of the movement: “I have a family, children, and I wonder how I will do for their studies later with 1,400 euros net per month. “ He carries 25 kilograms loads every day. In ” very good ” team, of course, but, all the same, “It was either the strike or I resigned”. Florence Vergnaud, sympathetic boil, chatting between the groups. “In our workshop, it’s too hot, so much that some people feel unwell. I reported the information, but nothing has changed. We have the feeling of not being listened to ”, laments this line conductor with twenty-five years of business.
Spontaneous and unprecedented mobilization
Acknowledgement. The word comes up in all conversations, and not just at Cocotine. Since the spring and the season of compulsory annual negotiations, anger has been raging in central Brittany, where the agri-food sector represents no less than 74,000 people, according to figures from 2019, or about 40% of industrial jobs – with peaks 70% near Carhaix-Plouguer (Finistère).
Greenyard Frozen in Moréac, Gaillard pâtissier in Locminé, Gelagri in Loudéac… Walkouts have multiplied in front of factories which knew little or nothing about the dispute. “In twenty-eight years in the sector, this is the first time that I have seen such a movement without a federal call to strike, comments Ronan Le Nézet, CGT secretary of the Pontivy-Loudéac local union. The social contract is no longer respected, and neither are people. “
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