WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, OCL CA #341 - Abusive subcontracting, logistics and SCOP: chronicles of the class struggle (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 WHEN SUBCONTRACTING RHYMES WITH MISTREATMENT OF EMPLOYEES AND CHILDREN

---- In Deux-Sèvres, the accounts of four drivers from the Expotrans
company, responsible for transporting nine children with disabilities to
school, are in the red. They have not been paid since March 10. With no
response from their company for three weeks, "neither by telephone nor
by email", they decided to exercise their right of withdrawal from April
29. Consequence: the Deux-Sèvres department, which pays the company for
this service, will have to find a solution for the young students with
disabilities concerned.
Employees have faced other problems since Expotrans worked for the
Deux-Sèvres department. Reimbursements arrive late. The company's mutual
insurance doesn't even work. Employees receive the car without meeting
anyone by collecting the keys from the mailbox. There are no booster
seats in the car designed to transport children. A situation confirmed
by parents of children.
This situation leaves families anxious about whether they can take their
children to school. Whereas this device allows children to go to school,
without for example having to go to daycare, which would cause them too
long days.
When contacted, the Deux-Sèvres department specified that it had been
"alerted last week by drivers who were having problems paying their
wages. The community contacted them, without any response from them to
date." He also specifies that he is "actively seeking all possible
solutions", to be able to transport from Monday, "in particular the use
of another service provider".
Contacted several times, the Expotrans company did not respond to
journalists' requests. Other employees in the same company face the same
problems in other departments. In Mayenne, employees of the same
company, also not paid, decided to hire a lawyer and hope to have the
company convicted before the industrial tribunal. (France Blue)

GUADELOUPE
Mobilization of four France Travail union organizations. They denounce
the difficulties in supporting job seekers, since the closure of two
agencies for work for more than two months, as well as the lack of staff.

More than 50% of the archipelago's gas stations were blocked by strikers
on May 2, according to the general secretary of the Guadeloupe Petroleum
Products Workers' Union.
The STPPG union's platform of demands has nine points. It mainly
concerns working conditions and remuneration: an increase in salary of
6%, in the amount of meal vouchers (increase to EUR9), in the seniority
bonus (this is currently fixed) , the transport bonus of EUR10, the
establishment of a pension fund, a revision of the collective agreement,
an end to the use of self-employed workers, security for pump attendants
(by speed bumps for example) and, in order to avoid robberies and cash
register errors, the installation of compulsive safes.

MARSEILLE
The strike had lasted since April 30 in the 4th and 5th arrondissements
of Marseille, before garbage collectors from other sectors (6th, 7th,
8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th arrondissements) joined the
movement. The CGT, at the origin of the movement, denounces the
reorganization of collection, with fewer rounds, carried out during the
day and no longer at night, which, according to the union, degrades the
working conditions of agents.
Answer: less than three days before the arrival of the Olympic flame in
Marseille and the festivities planned for this occasion: the
Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis asked the prefect to requisition the
garbage collection agents on strike...

LOGISTICS
The French employees of the American transport giant XPO Logistics are
angry. Since May 6, the inter-union had launched an unlimited national
strike with the following demands: increase in hourly rates, improvement
of mutual guarantees, implementation of a 13th month, a bonus of 1,000
euros and better working conditions. All of these grievances have to
date remained unheeded by management.
While XPO Logistics itself announced a 6% increase in turnover to $2
billion for the first quarter of this year, management's response sent
to union delegates on May 14 was limited to... bonus of EUR300 gross for
one year per employee, or EUR25 net per month...
Union representatives reserve the right to plan new, stronger actions
during international events in which the carrier is involved, such as
the Tour de France or the Olympic Games.

TOULOUSE
The Aldi Toulouse platform, which delivers to 83 stores in the region,
was blocked the week of April 29 to May 3, in Saint Sulpice-la-Pointe,
in Tarn. Around a hundred of the 130 employees were on strike to defend
their working conditions and salaries. During this week, 160 trucks were
unable to deliver the platform. Not to mention all the trucks that were
unable to leave the site.
A movement supported by the Peasant Confederation: it denounces this
chain of stores which exploits employees, but also its producers.
The national inter-union is considering a strike movement.

RELOCATION
The equipment manufacturer MA France, the last automobile factory in
Seine-Saint-Denis, employing 280 people in Aulnay-sous-Bois, is
experiencing its final hours after the decision, on May 13, of the
Bobigny commercial court, to place the dealing with the automobile giant
Stellantis in liquidation. The activities of the company are not
maintained pending its liquidation by agents.

A shock for these workers, many of whom were hired from the launch of MA
France in Aulnay in the early 2000s: thrown out like trash, without
negotiating their rights, without bonuses, without even time to turn
around to look for another job! In response, the workers went on strike
for a month.

While 180 foreign bosses gathered on May 13 in Versailles to celebrate
the attractiveness of France, job cuts continued in the automobile
industry. The giant Forvia (seats, headlights) announced in February a
plan to reduce its workforce in Europe which could affect up to 10,000
people by 2028. Large German equipment manufacturers, such as the world
No. 1 Bosch, ZF and Continental, or French, like Michelin, have also
announced or considered relocations, job cuts and site closures.
In France, the century-old Holophane glassworks, which produced car
headlight lenses, was liquidated in 2023, with 250 employees out of
work. The equipment manufacturer Magneti Marelli has closed its site of
167 employees in Argentan (Orne)...

SCOP IN SIGHT
Employees of the Morassuti printing works in Saint - Etienne decided to
create a SCOP in order to save jobs in their company in liquidation. To
achieve this, they launched a fundraiser to raise 50,000 euros.
"We have great machines, at the cutting edge, it would be a shame if
everything stopped!" Everything could stop because the Morassuti company
has been in liquidation since February, following a debt that is too
large to pay.
At the moment there are 14 employees who are able and willing to invest
financially in the project. The total budget required is 500,000 euros,
including around 50,000 euros of share capital contributed by employees.
"The more of us there are in the project, the less everyone will have to
put in money, but that's why we launched an online fundraiser, to help us."
The prize pool link is: https://www.ascop42.org

Waiting for a buyer, employees of the site in Fos-sur-Mer
(Bouches-du-Rhône) of the steel group Ascometal, placed in receivership,
and from which the Swiss Swiss Steel wants to get rid of, filed on April
25 their own recovery project.
The project would require financing of up to 150 million euros, which
should be provided by the State and the Public Investment Bank (BPI).
This takeover would give rise to transitional shared governance,
including employee representatives as well as the regional prefect, the
mayor of Fos-sur-Mer and a deputy from the constituency.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOP-TI1336!!!
They had fought 1,336 days to maintain their production facilities
against the giant Unilever. In May 2014, ex-Fralib employees of the
Gémenos tea factory east of Marseille formed a cooperative. Saturday May
18, they celebrated 10 years of taking over their business.
May 2014-May 2024, successful bet. 10 years after the creation of
Scop-Ti with 34 cooperative employees, they achieved a completely crazy
challenge at the time, that of challenging an international agri-food
giant. Unilever had decided to separate from this Gémenos production
unit east of Marseille. The employees' fight with the occupation of
their factory then hit the headlines. They were and always have become a
symbol of struggles for employment.
Today, they own their production tool. The land and premises belong to a
mutualist group. They produce 120,000 boxes of tea and infusions per
week. The vast majority of their production (85%) is "white label", that
is to say intended for distributor brands. Economically, the company has
grown significantly. The objective is now to develop their own brand
"1336" as much as possible, with a significant increase in points of
sale. Self-management is not easy, but it works!

RADIO FRANCE
A call for a strike was launched by the Radio France inter-union
association "for the defense of freedom of expression".
A communication in particular in support of the comedian Guillaume
Meurice, suspended by management for two weeks. The columnist was
sanctioned after repeating his controversial remarks about the Israeli
Prime Minister on May 2, 2024.
This controversy clashes with the government's public broadcasting
reform project, examined from May 14 in committee at the National
Assembly. It provides for a two-stage merger of France Télévisions,
Radio France, France Médias Monde (RFI, France 24) and the National
Audiovisual Institute (INA): firstly a holding company overseeing these
companies from January 1, 2025 , then a merger on January 1, 2026. It is
also contested by the unions of France Télévisions and Radio France.

AGAINST STREAMING PLATFORMS
Seven thousand artists have signed an open letter to demand better
remuneration on streaming platforms. This open letter, launched at the
initiative of Adami (Administration of the Rights of Artists and
Performing Musicians), demands that artists be "compensated in
proportion to the success of the work on which they collaborate".
The president of Adami believes that a strike is possible, like the one
launched by the Americans, or a summons to court, as the Italian actors did.

IN ITALY ALSO
Journalists at Italian public radio and television RAI began a 24-hour
strike on May 6. The Usigrai union, the majority among the group's
approximately 2,000 journalists, had filed a strike notice after
accusing the RAI management of having censored the speech of a prominent
writer criticizing far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, in the approach of
Liberation Day, April 25.
Partly funded by a fee and with leaders long appointed by politicians,
RAI's independence has always been a subject of debate. But with the
coming to power of Giorgia Meloni, concerns have increased. The strike
received support from other press unions.

ARGENTINA
Argentine unions have called for a new general strike on Thursday May 9
against ultraliberal President Javier Milei. The country was paralyzed,
without transport, without shops and without public services to protest
against layoffs in the civil service and the loss of purchasing power.
Unions are also calling for the protection of increasingly precarious
workers.

UNITED STATES
Unionized employees at the Apple store in Towson, Maryland, voted on
Saturday May 11 in favor of a possible strike, which would be the first
at this brand in the United States.

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4206
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