France, Alternative Libertaire AL #232 - Cleaning: Clean Sweep against outsourcing (fr)

This is a great victory, in these times of social gloom. Maids and governesses hotels Pont 
de Suresnes have indeed fought against precarious employment conditions related to 
subcontracting. And they won! ---- Fifteen maids and governesses company Deca France went 
on strike for 28 days from 20 March to 16 April 2012, together with a portion of the 
internal staff of Campanile hotels and first class at the Pont de Suresnes. They got their 
integration within the Louvre Hotels Group (2nd French hotel group) from 1 August 2013. An 
agreement was indeed signed in early August, between management and the union CGT-HPE 
(Hotels prestige and economic), controlling in hotels. It covers nineteen employees on 
permanent contracts (three nannies), and three in CSD, for most African women with little 
education.

A part of the movement duration

There is a year, the strike has allowed employees of the subcontractor, who cleaned the 
286 rooms at both hotels at an average of 4 to 4.25 rooms per hour, to obtain (for the 
first time in the history of strikes in this sector), payment based on the number of hours 
worked in lieu of payment to the room with the installation of a time clock. They had also 
obtained a decrease indicative rates of 25% (3.15 or 3.3 rooms by the hour), a revaluation 
of ? 100 of their monthly salary, payment of 50% of strike days, with recovery the other 
50%, and a significant upgrading of the schedule based on their contracts, 60-108 monthly 
to 120 h or 130 h.

This victory was made possible by the unionization of employees and patient work conducted 
jointly by trade unions CGT and CNT-HPE-cleaning, to build unity among the staff of the 
hotel and the cleaning company. The law of 20 August 2008, which includes a section about 
the representativeness of trade union organizations in enterprises, allowed employees of 
the subcontractor choose to vote with the staff of the Sponsor in professional elections, 
which led to the victory of the CGT-HPE, a few months before the conflict began. The 
CNT-Cleaning majority among employees of the subcontractor, agreed to stand down in favor 
of the CGT.

Towards the integration of employee-es of subcontracting?
The negotiation of full integration into the hotel staff intervened late July, while the 
subcontractor Deca France, placed in a situation of bankruptcy, had to leave the site and 
be replaced by another of where the threat of a new strike maids. Integration into the 
staff payer will result in the application maids and governesses of the personal status of 
the CNS Hotel du Pont de Suresnes, where an estimated 200 euros monthly gain for each 
employee: 13 months, dressing-undressing premium, revaluation of EUR 100 food allowance, 
bonus tax, profit sharing and incentive.

This victory is the culmination of a series of conflicts that marked the 2000s [ 1 ]. The 
employee-es demanded respect for their dignity, lower rates, full payment of the hours 
worked and the end of social apartheid related to subcontracting household rooms.

The HPE-CGT union made sure to maintain pressure directions hotels (Novotel Les Halles, 
Campanile Pont de Suresnes and others) through actions for "illegal subcontracting" and 
"clandestine work". The threat of condemnation to the Labour Court has played in favor of 
the decision to integrate the maids, and they each received 4,000 euros in compensation in 
lieu of working hours and benefits not paid up here.

A rally was attended by 50 people at the Pont de Suresnes September 4, 2013, at the call 
of trade unions CGT and CNT-HPE-SO, with the presence of members of the UD-92 CGT and the 
PCF. It was followed by a press conference with HRD Louvre Hotels Group and the direction 
of the Campanile. Even if there is no questioning the overall subcontracting "hosting 
service" (60% for the group), the directions have accepted the idea that subcontracting 
was not necessarily the most effective model, and expressed their willingness to 
experiment for a period of one year another model, which could then be extended elsewhere.

Salute the courage of employees who dared to strike and drop files to the Labour Court. 
The exemplary cooperation between trade unions, the strike fund organized by the CGT 
union, the financial support of union locals and nearby residents, the court continued 
pressure, led to a breakthrough that could prove decisive for employee es sector.

Odile, National Collaborative for Women's Rights

Ten years of conflict in subcontracting hotel
The maids of the company Arcade - subcontractor Accor - led a long strike from March 2002 
to March 2003. Since then, for ten years, conflicts and strikes have continued in hotels 
in the Paris area, many of which have outsourced the cleaning of the rooms. For example, 
from October 6 to November 8, 2011, the maids of Novotel Paris Les Halles (Accor Group) 
conducted a conflict that has allowed them to obtain the passage of permanent and contract 
staff - with monthly hours 130 hours - eight maids a housekeeper past in more permanent 
full-time.

Following the strike Arcade, management Accor agreed in December 2002 to sign a charter in 
which it undertook to ensure the improvement of working conditions of wage-companies are 
outsourcing . It was also in 2004, stated a willingness to internalize cleaning hotel 
rooms. But after some effort, these resolutions have been forgotten.

Louvre Hotels Group is also engaged in negotiations with the unions CFDT, CFTC and CGT for 
the enactment of a social charter of subcontracting, which would be applicable to all the 
hotels in the group. This involves both a comprehensive framework for defining rates for 
each hotel type, a requirement for all sub-contractors to use a time clock and provide 
monthly statements of hours worked by each employee.

[ 1 ] See the brochure Network Stop poverty: Ten years of war in Parisian hotels. Women's 
struggles chamber subcontracting and hotels , with the support of Rajfire on sale at 3 
euros: The Breach (Paris 12e), Violette and Co (Paris 11e), Publico (Paris 11e), The 
daybreak (Paris 5e), Quilombo (Paris 11e). See also www.stop-precarite.fr