2024-01-06 19:35:04
A “magnificent but poorly heated” office. Some of the Mont-Saint-Michel employees are still on strike, twelve days after the start of the movement on December 26. They are mobilizing for better working conditions: the cold, the prolonged standing and the 350 steps to climb every day make it a tiring workplace.
Between the morning climb to reach the Norman abbey, “the visits and those who stay on their feet all day, we all have joint problems in our knees and ankles,” laments Herminia Amador Chacon, of the CGT.
The trade unionist drives the point home: “Our dedicated shuttle gives us ten minutes in the morning to climb the Mount to the summit and open the entire building to the public, we open late every morning because it’s physically impossible! »
Tickets sold in prefabricated boxes
Around fifteen of the fifty-five employees of the abbey, managed by the Center des monuments nationaux (CMN), have been on strike since December 26. The building, one of the most visited monuments in France with 1.5 million tourists per year, has since either been closed to the public or opened free of charge.
The demands of the inter-union CGT, CFDT and Sud Solidaires concern an increase in staff numbers, financial recognition of linguistic skills and arduousness as well as improvement of working conditions.
The investments are “not up to the level of this wonderful monument that is the abbey even though it brings in a lot of money for the CMN”, according to the unionist.
Cashiers usually sell tickets in two small prefabs. “These two temporary posts were installed during the covid, there is heating, we are sheltered there but it is too small, we are asking for a lasting reception structure”, adds the trade unionist, Herminia Amador Chacon, in front of the staircase where tourists pile up in a single file instead of the usual three.
According to CMN figures, 2,500 visitors have entered the abbey on average in recent days, compared to 4,000 usually during the winter holidays.
Arnaud Noblet, secretary general of the Mont Saint-Michel Abbey for National Monuments, says he “personally understands” that employees sometimes feel “overwhelmed” during the high season. He recalls that “since 2018 the payroll has increased by 7%, we have gone from 55 permanent agents to 85 during the summer period, and the end-of-year negotiations resulted in the creation of 2.5 positions”.
For Arnaud Noblet, the CMN operates “in equalization and we claim it, large monuments like the abbey allow small ones to exist”.
The few Mont traders interviewed by AFP assure that they have not observed any difference in their turnover since the start of the movement.
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