TRADE union rights are facing escalating challenges throughout Europe, warns the European Public Service Union (EPSU).
In France, a number of trade union activists are currently being called to interviews with police, EPSU says. These summonses are directly linked to their participation in actions such as demonstrations, strikes, and other activities in connection with France’s pension reform.
A significant step in this ongoing suppression of unions is the summons of Sebastien Menesplier, the General Secretary of the CGT’s National Federation for Mines and Energy (FNME) and a member of the national leadership of the CGT confederation.
Menesplier has been summoned by Montmorency police because he is ‘suspected of having committed or attempting to commit the offence of endangering others by deliberate violation of a regulatory obligation of safety or prudence’ in connection with actions taken by energy workers to protest the pension reform.
This marks the first instance of a confederal leader being summoned on public safety charges for engaging in trade union activism.
Beyond its immediate impact, this summons is a highly political action. It directly targets not only the CGT but the entire energy sector workforce, who are defending their rights.
The French government’s recent suppression of worker’s rights and the right to strike is part of a larger, worrying trend.
Legislative measures are being introduced across Europe, each aiming to curtail the capacity of trade unions and other activists to stage demonstrations.
For instance, France’s recent expansion of the ‘anti-squat’ law criminalises company occupations and picketing on company premises.
Meanwhile, Belgium’s proposed ‘Van Quickenborne’ law aims to suppress riots but instead limits the right to protest and demonstrate, directly limiting union and activist actions.
EPSU has joined Belgian unions, human rights defenders, environmental organisations, NGOs and others in their protest against the bill.
The United Kingdom’s Public Order Act similarly restricts the right to demonstrate, drawing sharp criticism from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who deemed it a law with a ‘chilling effect on civic freedoms’.
FNME-CGT is rallying for a mass mobilisation in front of Montmorency police station on 6th September to demonstrate against the repression of trade union activists and the assault on the right to strike.
The French union is also calling for a national strike in the energy sector.
Meanwhile, as the European trade union federations who represent FNME-CGT, EPSU and IndustriAll will stage a solidarity protest outside the French embassy in Brussels on the same day.
The right to strike is under attack across Europe, and an attack on one trade union leader represents an attack on all workers.
Meanwhile, the CGT has reported two strikes in France.
For more than seven weeks, 120 employees of the world leader in office partitions, Clestra, have been on strike. After the takeover of their business and in the absence of a clear answer, they fear for their jobs.
In October 2022, the Clestra company, located in Illkirch-Graffenstaden near Strasbourg, was bought by a group managing nursing homes. Since then, all talks have stalled.
As soon as they arrived, the management engaged in an authoritarian showdown.
In the aftermath, many employees left. In the spring, the employees refused a collective conventional break-up agreement for around forty employees in production.
Management then changed strategy. ‘They said to themselves that they were going to get rid of all the employees who do not tow the line, one by one,’ said Amar Ladraa, CGT manager, to the information site rue89Strasbourg.
On July 3rd, an employee was refused entry to the site – he was summarily fired!
It was the last straw. Considering this unfair dismissal, his colleagues went on strike. For them, it is a disguised social plan that is being organised as part of the ongoing restructuring.
For two months, the 120 strikers have been demanding guarantees for their jobs.
On Thursday August 24, the secretary general of the CGT, Sophie Binet accompanied by Fredéric Sanchez, secretary general of the CGT metallurgy came to support the strikers.
They demanded the immediate opening of negotiations and the intervention of public authorities. Especially since the group benefited at the time of the takeover of five million euros in public aid in exchange for commitments, particularly in terms of jobs.
The strikers remain determined while waiting for the situation to be resolved.
In the meantime, after almost two months of strike, the CGT has set up a strike fund and is calling for financial solidarity. Donations can be made online on Leetchi (access the kitty here), by cheque payable to Métallurgie CGT – 1 Rue Sédillot – 67000 Strasbourg; or by bank transfer (contact details on request by email to ).
- In Enghien-les-Bains, there has been a successful strike for employees of the Barrière casino.
In the middle of summer, the central cashiers of the slot machines of the Barrière group, the leading casino in France, went on strike to demand the full and immediate application of their salary scale.
On July 1st, the management finally folded after six days of struggle, changing the employees from the status of employees to that of supervisors, with the key of 100 to 350 euros of applicable monthly salary increase.
In front of the Lake of Enghien-les-Bains and its water jets magnified by the effects of light in the evening, the wealthy indulge in the intoxication of games – slot machines of all kinds, black-jacks, roulette wheels etc.
The Barrière casino is successful, attracting more than 150 million euros in annual turnover, including nearly 100 million euros for games and slot machines alone.
But this money does not benefit everyone. The 600 employees, whose work allows the influence of the casino, its hotel pool, its thermal baths and its games, are as always the great forgotten ones when it comes to the sharing of wealth.
The Covid crisis and the long periods of business stoppage have hit the establishment hard, especially the central cashiers of the slot machines, a significant part of whose remuneration comes from tips. They suddenly became aware of the fragility of the system, causing more and more discussions about their salary.
Looking at their payslips more closely, they discovered with amazement that the casino management did not apply the salary scale – whatever their seniority (up to fifteen years for some employees), all were placed on the first level.
Refusing this unacceptable state of affairs, the entire service approached the CGT union present at the casino to take action.
The struggle began on July 9th with a petition denouncing the non-application of the pay scale for the twelve central slot machine cashiers, signed by the entire department and submitted to management by the union. CGT.
Their demands were:
- A substantial salary increase for all central cashiers at slot machines, to ensure fair and equitable compensation based on skills, seniority and responsibilities;
- An improvement in professional development as well as a salary reassessment at level 4 of the salary scale for supervisors, more specifically for indices 155 and 160;
- The establishment of a mechanism for regular reassessment, making it possible to guarantee increases in line with changes in the cost of living.
Since the casino management did not seem to take their just demands seriously, the employees decided to toughen up the fight.
Faced with contempt from management, the strike was organised.
On July 13 at 5.00am, in front of the beautiful glass facade in the ‘Belle Epoque’ style of the Casino Barrière, the central cashiers planted their picket line, with a banner and flags in the colours of the CGT, splashing the main entrance to the casino in red.
The watchword was launched: ‘We do not move from here as long as the management refuses to apply the effectiveness of the salary scale.’
The cashiers held the picket twenty-four hours a day, showing their resistance and their combativeness. They were able to count on the support of employees from other departments, who came to discuss with the strikers and bring them food.
They too realised that their remuneration was far from commensurate with the efforts demanded by the casino, the evenings and weekends sacrificed, family life and health impaired.
The strikers were also able to count on the comrades of the CGT departmental union of Val-d’Oise and the Trade Union Federation, who provided the militant and material support necessary for the fight.
But the enthusiasm of the pickets was not reflected inside the building! The profession, being highly regulated (only employees authorised to handle money can run operations in the casino), the slot machine room went into slow motion.
With no cashiers there can be no gambling, and millions of euros were lost. The situation was unbearable for the management, and forced them to sit down around the negotiating table. The fight was bearing fruit, and was in danger of spreading.
On July 18, after six days of continuous strike, the management finally satisfied the strikers’ demands and they won the transition from the status of employee to that of supervisor with a salary increase, individual monthly payment of 100 to 350 euros, depending on the respective seniority of the employees, backdated from July 1st, 2023.
Following this victory, many of the casino’s employees approached the CGT union in order to actively pursue the battle for a better distribution of the fruits of their labour. Today, more than 110 employees of the Barrière casino are unionised with the CGT.
This fight is a real source of inspiration for all casino employees in France, to enable them to obtain wage increases and better working conditions. ‘Employers in the sector have been warned,’ said the CGT.
