The year 2022 ends with another successful strike, lasting more than a month, in
the cleaning sector. A massively feminized and racialized branch, the movementwas supported by a broad trade union front. Several lessons can be drawn fromthis struggle. ---- After Sorbonne-University in 2021, it was at the Universityof Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne that a strike broke out in November 2022 in thecleaning sector. The ten agents (mostly women) hired by the company Arc-en-Cielon the Tolbiac site led a month-long strike against their working conditions.---- Abuse and harassment, unfair dismissal of a colleague, non-payment ofovertime and certain bonuses, absence of contracts: so many grounds for claimsand legitimate anger.We find there the usual methods in the cleaning sector, but particularly at thecompany Arc-en-Ciel, known to be one of the most rotten, and confronted withrecurring conflicts.The first objective was to create the presence of these "invisible" workers whoclean a 21-storey tower on a daily basis. A daily picket was organized in thehall of the center, animated by the strikers and their supporters, especiallystudents.Several actions to make this mobilization as visible as possible have beencarried out, such as the sticking up of posters, the distribution of leaflets, orthe papers spread on the floor of the hall to insist on the need for this work.A speech was even held with more than a hundred people and numerous interventionsin front of the university. It was a success, which made it possible not only toimpose on the presidency of the university to tolerate the picket in theuniversity (while she wanted to reject it outside in the middle of winter), butalso to attract more wide attention.That of the students and staff of the university of course, rather favorable inthis center usually very mobilized, but also of the press which came severaltimes, which put greater pressure on the university.Unified trade union supportThis efficiency was made possible by the organization of workers within theCNT-SO (National Confederation of Labor - Workers' Solidarity), which united theteam while giving them the tools to fight.Student organizations, such as Révolution Permanente, Solidaires Étudiants, theUNEF (National Union of Students of France) and the FSE (Student UnionFederation), as well as professional struggle unions (Sud, CGT, FSU), supportedthe movement, while leaving it its autonomy.The picket, in the hall of the center, sees students passing by every dayCommunist InitiativeUniversity staff were thus able to relay the demands of the strikers during thetechnical committee and during meetings with the presidency. The maintenance of alarge strike fund since the 2019 movement, co-managed by Sud and the CGT, hasalso made it possible to financially support the movement.The culture of struggle and the trade union and interprofessional unionfacilitated the maintenance of the strike over time. The presidency of thefaculty was thus put in front of its own contradictions and its differentarguments internally and with the strikers. This forced her to hold a moreradical discourse than her original positions.Another positive effect: the right and the extreme right (the UNI, the Cocardeand the GUD) were kept at a distance throughout the movement, which proves thatthe most effective bulwark against the extreme right is social struggle!Faced with the strength of the movement, Arc-en-Ciel of course tried to dividethe workers by taking an inflexible position, refusing the reinstatement of thedismissed colleague and sending other teams to try to clean up the site.The contempt and the absence of negotiation with the strikers ended up beingheavy after a month of conflict, when the question of pay began to arise as theend of the year holidays approached.Despite these tensions, the movement remained united until the signing onDecember 5 of a victorious agreement: salary increases, requalifications onpermanent contracts, payment of the stripping bonus and the 13th month. It istherefore a material and political victory for the strikers.Despite everything, the obstinate refusal to reinstate the dismissed colleague aswell as other problems raised during the strike led the CNT-SO to seize theindustrial tribunal. Finally, we will have to remain vigilant, Arc-en-Ciel havingnot hesitated to trample its own end-of-conflict agreement at Sorbonne-Universityafter a few months.The outsourcing problemIn addition to the conquests it allowed, this struggle had several positiveeffects within the university. It strengthened the unity and determination of thestruggle organizations, which moreover won the majority of seats in theprofessional elections that followed the movement.She also shed light on outsourcing within the faculty. The phenomenon is knownand massive in the building or at the Post Office, with the key to degradedworking conditions but also strikes.But it is also becoming widespread at the university, in security and cleaningactivities, and recently even for taking notes for the minutes of deliberationsin central councils!It is absurd to continue this siphoning of public funds in the service of abusivecompanies, and the Paris I unions have already planned to lead a campaign in 2023to obtain the internalization of these tasks. Finally, this struggle reminded usthat the university cannot function without feminized and racialized professions,in cleaning but also in administration (also in great suffering in Paris I).Obtaining victories in these sectors is strategic for militant unionism. It isessential to take hold of these questions, especially in view of March 8.Hugo (UCL Montreuil)Read also "Cleaning subcontracting: strikes follow one another, Rainbow remains",Power relations, December 14, 2022.Read also "End of conflict agreement for cleaning staff subcontracted byArc-en-Ciel in Tolbiac (Paris I University)" on cnt-so.org.Read also "A year of struggle on the DPD and Chronopost pickets" on sudptt.org.https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Secteurs-feminises-Un-Arc-en-Ciel-qui-ne-fait-pas-rever-Tolbiac_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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