“We will go all the way! Around 170 retail workers occupied a shopping center and a Carrefour store located in Charenton-le-Pont (Val-de-Marne) on Wednesday evening to demand wage increases and support employees “assigned to the court” of Créteil for their strike, according to a CGT Commerce official. “Bercy 2 shopping center: the employees have decided to occupy it all night”, warns a leaflet distributed on social networks by the CGT Commerce and Services.
The occupation began around 10 a.m. and concentrated more than 500 employees of large retailers, according to Amar Lagha, secretary general of the federation. This action is part of a broader context of strikes and site occupations aimed at obtaining a minimum wage of 2,000 euros per month.
“The only way to be heard today is to block the economy”, he added while the employees must decide Thursday at 9 am during a general assembly if they wish to continue the movement.
The union chose this store in particular because, according to Amar Lagha, around thirty employees were “submitted to court” in Créteil by the new manager (a franchisee) for a one-day strike organized last week. It is a question of “denouncing the consequences of rental management” and “reaffirming that no one can silence us”, despite this “very strong repression” which followed a “very pacifist” movement, adds the union official. .
Since the arrival at its head of Alexandre Bompard in 2017, the Carrefour group has put dozens of stores under lease management every year in order, according to him, to revive activity and preserve jobs, while the unions denounce a social break that does not say its name.
Lease-management is a form of franchise in which the store manager does not own the business, which therefore continues to belong to Carrefour. Contacted by AFP, the Carrefour group indicated that, the store being a franchise, it was not directly concerned and therefore had no comment to make.