At the end of 2025, the CGT Capgemini learned that the group's American subsidiary-called Capgemini Government Solutions (CGS)-was offering tools from the company Palantir for mass surveillance. In January 2026, the multinational observatory and then France 2 revealed that CGS had several contracts with ICE, some of which included performance bonuses in their pursuit of migrants.
AL: When this came out in January, what was happening in the union?Maximilien: We were already working on the issue. Right after Trump's re-election, there had been an email from the ambassador sent to companies. Capgemini started to change its political rhetoric, particularly on inclusivity and diversity. When France 2 released its investigation, it accelerated things. We've finalized and released everything we've been working on for the past month: Instagram posts, press releases, responses to all journalists, and appeals to our federation and the CGT confederation. We're also looking at what we can do to coordinate our struggles. Because Capgemini isn't the only company; there's also Thales and others.
We also need to offer an alternative. We denounce the situation, OK, but what do we do? Because there are still comrades, colleagues who have to work. We also need to remind people that there's another solution besides what capitalism offers us. As experts in our field, we know we can use our labor for something else.
Maximilien is an IT specialist at Capgemini, a French digital services company listed on the CAC 40. He is a union representative and co-general secretary of the CGT Capgemini. Maximilien: So we had to convince our colleagues a bit.
Just before, we learned of a plan to cut 2,409 jobs. We started holding general assemblies. But as with mandatory annual negotiations, and more generally in the IT and engineering world, people are very fatalistic. So we didn't really manage to draw large crowds. Conversely, the contract with the ICE (European Trade Union Confederation) immediately brought a lot of messages of support, a lot of thanks from people who were proud that we were trying to fight this from within. And a lot of unionization. People said to themselves: "My company is messing things up, I'm not going to turn a blind eye, I'm going to fight it."
To illustrate the scale of the crisis at Capgemini, all the union organizations were invited by Aiman Ezzat, the CEO, for a discussion meeting, which is very rarely done. As a simple IT specialist, wearing an Adidas jacket and a Lacoste cap, at the international headquarters and facing the boss via video conference, you really feel the system of domination. I read a collective statement and was able to challenge the boss on his ethical rhetoric. Indeed, colleagues who refuse assignments to stay true to their principles are being shown the door.
Among your demands was the end of partnerships with the ICE (European Centre for International Development), and this issue of the conscience clause.
During a previous negotiation, we demanded an "ecological conscience clause," particularly for contracts with Total. It was immediately dismissed, but these are things we, as a union, are trying to implement: colleagues are being devoured by Capital, but let's at least have some control over our values. Some colleagues still want to sign these kinds of contracts. No problem, we don't judge colleagues for what they do; that's not our goal. We're here to offer them a way out.
Faced with internal struggles and the scale of the scandal, Capgemini has put its US subsidiary up for sale.
First of all, who's going to buy a company that, in the CEO's words, "isn't profitable"? Secondly, "putting it up for sale" is just shifting the problem onto someone else. We have our famous saying here: "I'm selling the gun that killed 50 people. It's not mine anymore!" What we want is clearly the closure of CGS.
You've broadened this demand to call for an end to all harmful partnerships with companies that commit genocide or ecocide. Is this finding any support within the union and the company?
We could use name and shame tactics. But all the big capitalist companies collaborate with genocidal or colonial companies, or supply governments and the military. We demand at least an audit. Capgemini is an international company; it just spun off a subsidiary. But for example, in Hungary, what are their activities? What services do they offer? We remain an internationalist union, so we defend the interests of all workers, not just white workers. As an internationalist union, we must help our comrades in America, who share the same views as the CGT. We believe we should not be responsible for neocolonialism.
Let's get back to the announcement of more than 2,400 job cuts and this Taylorism applied to IT.
For a long time, IT was an El Dorado, and many people retrained in it. We had the individual bargaining power to negotiate wages. But the bosses understood: they've done a lot of retraining, but for specific tasks rather than a general IT training program.
It's a form of neo-Taylorism. Many jobs are becoming obsolete and are left behind in reorganizations. People don't necessarily find other work afterward because they're doing a specific task. Furthermore, managerial status seems (falsely) protective. Colleagues feel like they're no longer part of our social class. I call them tax managers. We're still workers, but with a shirt. I'm not saying our work is physically tiring; we're not in a factory. But it's just as intellectually exhausting because you're always doing the same tasks. Many colleagues define themselves as code workers because they work for years on the same four lines of code. Bosses have adapted factory production methods and applied them to IT. Artificial intelligence is a false pretext. The real goal is to reduce payroll costs and increase productivity. Much to the delight of shareholders.
Interview by Malo (UCL Rennes)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Max-CGT-Capgemini-Ce-qu-on-veut-c-est-la-fermeture-de-Capgemini-Government
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Link: (en) France, UCL AL #369 - Unionism - Max (CGT Capgemini): "What we want is the closure of Capgemini Government Solutions." (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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