* 100 days of struggle and a victory for street educators in Loire-Atlantique
* Strike action at Scapest warehouses* Manager dismissed and wages increased at Biocoop Paris 19th
* Nurses in New York return to work
* Strike ends at Kaiser Permanente
100 days of struggle and one victory for street educators in Loire-Atlantique
"We are employed under a contract status within the local public service, and the Public Interest Group (GIP) of the Loire-Atlantique department, which mandates our work, has decided to make our employment more precarious by unilaterally changing our working hours to 1,607 hours per year, effective January 1, 2026. This corresponds to an increase in our workload equivalent to four weeks in exchange for a salary "increase" of EUR38 net per month." The majority of the 44 street educators in Nantes, Saint-Nazaire, Rezé, Orvault, and Saint-Herblain, employees of the Departmental Agency for Specialized Prevention, began an open-ended strike on November 19, 2025. Since a change in status in 2012 that transferred them from the private to the public sector, they had been promised salary increases. Their salaries are EUR500 lower than those of their colleagues in other departments. The announcement of the elimination of four weeks of vacation and time off in lieu was the final straw, along with their working conditions. As of January 1, 2026, out of 44 educators, 11 were on sick leave, and 2 had resigned.
In February, the ADPS (Association of Private Security Professionals) backed down on its plan to eliminate four weeks of vacation. An agreement was reached regarding paid leave; "we signed on to the issue of flexible working arrangements. We are still losing vacation time compared to what we had before. Most of it has been converted into time off in lieu (RTT), but we now have the ability to individually choose our working hours." Working time has been reassessed with "6.5 days of compensatory rest for a total of 1,561 working hours per year (i.e., a total of 13 weeks of vacation and time off in lieu)," explains an ADPS press release, adding that "this compensation is based on multifactorial constraints related to the job, including shift work, evenings, and Saturdays." Regarding salary, there have been "two consecutive increases in 2025 and 2026, representing a total increase of 273 euros gross per month on average/educator (i.e. +10%)".
On February 26, after 100 days of struggle, the various parties reached an agreement. This agreement will be finalized at an extraordinary general meeting of the GIP scheduled for March 9.
This exemplary and victorious struggle was made possible by the convergence of several factors. First, the CGT and Solidaires unions remained uncompromising, unlike the divisions that often serve the interests of employers. And above all, from the very beginning of the movement, the intention to strike for an extended period was clear. A strike fund was quickly established so that striking workers could cope with the loss of income. A rolling strike with people determined to win will always be a thousand times more effective than sporadic days of politely asking to renegotiate the length of the chain with the "social partners." Management only understands the balance of power.
Sources: France 3 Pays de la Loire, Ouest France, Contre-Attaque, UL CGT Nantes,
Strike action at Scapest warehouses
Scapest (Société coopérative d'approvisionnement Paris-Est), located in Saint-Martin-sur-le-Pré (Marne), is the purchasing and logistics center for Leclerc stores in the Northeast region. 146 stores across eleven departments are supplied by this company. Scapest employs approximately 642 people in the Châlons-en-Champagne area, the majority of whom are paid the minimum wage. Following a meeting on mandatory annual negotiations (NAO) on Friday, February 13, union representatives, supported by employees in the fresh produce, fruit and vegetable, and frozen food departments of the regional purchasing and logistics center for E.Leclerc stores, deemed the proposals put forward by management to be "completely insufficient and disconnected from their legitimate expectations." On February 16, 2026, employees at the site began a strike called by the joint union group Unsa, Sud Industrie/Solidaires, and CFDT. The strike was also joined by FO and the CGT. Employees are taking turns throughout the day in front of the company entrance. In the strike notice sent to management, the employees are demanding "a general 3% wage increase and a EUR3,000 PPV bonus," while management is offering 0.8% and EUR500. They are also demanding "concrete and immediate measures to end wage and treatment inequalities between staff categories and between men and women." Union representatives are specifically requesting "equal treatment for all Scapest employees, particularly regarding health insurance, regardless of their status, whether managerial or not. We all want to be on an equal footing in terms of health and safety." The action is taking the form of a filtering roadblock for trucks trying to enter the company's main site, rather than a total blockade. The aim is to "slow down operations."
110 temporary workers have been sent home since the start of the strike. On February 23, around a hundred employees opposed to the eight-day strike at Scapest confronted the strikers, led by the chairman of the board, the director of Scapest, and the CEO of the Leclerc supermarket in Fameck. Under pressure, the protesters lifted the blockade and allowed trucks to pass around 4 p.m. Management set February 24 at noon as an ultimatum to end the strike. After several hours of discussions with Scapest management, the unions ended the nine-day strike on Tuesday, February 24, 2026. According to the CGT union representative, "There is no agreement." In concrete terms, the main demands remain unchanged. According to the union, management is maintaining its position on the profit-sharing bonus set at EUR750, as well as on the increases for the cold weather bonus and the high-rise bonus. However, two issues need to be revisited this year: health insurance and vacation vouchers. The cost of health insurance is a major point of contention. "We pay EUR100 as a base rate for family health insurance. That's the basic plan; then there are additional options. And managers don't pay for their own health insurance." Discussions are planned, particularly in April, to review these arrangements. The unions are not entirely satisfied with this agreement, but, shaken by the previous day's events, they nevertheless chose to end the strike. "We would have liked to have more, but the progress on health insurance and vacation vouchers will already give us some purchasing power. We mustn't be too greedy and must know when to stop," acknowledged the Sud Industrie union representative.
Sources: L'Union, Ici Champagne, France 3 Champagne Ardenne
Manager dismissed and salaries increased at Biocoop Paris 19th
Sixteen out of twenty employees at the Biocoop Place des Fêtes store in Paris's 19th arrondissement went on strike on January 3, 2026. The strikers denounced abusive management practices (humiliation, constant pressure, intimidation, excessive surveillance, verbal abuse), stagnant wages despite increased sales, and a pervasive sense of tension in the store. "We will no longer work with this owner; she presents psychosocial risks within the company. (...) She has never acknowledged the toxic behaviors she has exhibited, and all the psychological and physical damage they have caused to employees. (...) We're not here to start a revolution, but to do our jobs in the best possible conditions, without stomach aches, without suffering from endometriosis flare-ups that last forever, without crying, without being afraid to go to work, without being afraid to speak to the boss." For example, here, an employee who has worked in the store for eight years earns a net salary of EUR1,560. This makes this graduate in horticulture, who works in the fruit and vegetable department, one of the highest earners. Yet, by comparison, some managers of other Biocoop stores pay their employees a minimum of EUR2,000 net per month. However, Biocoop Place des Fêtes is not an isolated case. The strikers have received numerous testimonies from all over France, from Rennes to Marseille, including Carcassonne. These are other employees, like themselves, who are subjected to toxic management and low wages in stores that claim to be organic, fair trade, and healthy.
The strikers signed an agreement on Wednesday, January 28, ending their 25-day strike. They achieved their main demand: the removal of their manager, who also owned the store, after she had imposed "oppressive and toxic" working conditions. Their struggle also secured a wage increase, ranging from 9% to 6% over two years.
Sources: NVO, UL CGT 19th, Lutte ouvrière, L'Anticapitaliste, NPA révolutionnaires
All the striking nurses in New York have returned to work.
On January 12, 2026, 15,000 nurses (members of the New York State Nurses Association - NYSNA) from the three largest hospital groups went on strike after contract negotiations expired, ahead of the nurses' contract's expiration on December 31, 2025. The NYSNA called the preliminary agreements with Mount Sinai and Montefiore a "victory," stating that they included a 12% pay increase over the three-year contract, continued health benefits for nurses, measures against workplace violence, and protections for immigrant and transgender patients and nurses. Work resumed on February 14 for the 10,500 strikers from the two groups.
Some 4,200 nurses continued the strike. Local union representatives accused the union leadership of rushing a vote on a preliminary agreement they had already rejected during negotiations. A member of the NYSNA executive committee at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital denounced a "rushed operation" to align the agreement with those reached with other hospitals. An agreement with the NewYork-Presbyterian group, their employer, was signed. The agreement with the hospital group includes a wage increase of more than 12% over three years and also an increase in the number of nurses. Work resumed. "For a month and a half, through some of the worst weather the city has seen in years, the nurses at NYP[NewYork-Presbyterian]have shown this city that they will not accept any compromise on patient care."
An arbitrator awarded nearly $400,000 in February to some nurses at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in NewYork-Presbyterian for having to work understaffed in 2023 and 2024, the union said, presenting it as evidence of the problems that led to the strike.
Sources: helm.news, infirmiers.com, wsws.org, France 24, American, Canadian, Swiss, Belgian and French press
Strike ends at Kaiser Permanente
After nearly five weeks of action, the historic strike by 31,000 nurses and other healthcare professionals at Kaiser Permanente ended on February 24. The strike by members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) was the largest indefinite strike by nurses and healthcare professionals in U.S. history. Their demands focused on improved wages and working conditions, including staffing levels. An agreement was eventually reached, allowing employees to return to work unconditionally. In parallel with the nurses' strike, more than 3,000 pharmacy and laboratory workers, represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers, also held a three-day action in February. This strike, while separate, was coordinated with the UNAC/UHCP movement.
However, this end of conflict does not mark the end of social tensions within the health insurance giant, with the announcement of a possible strike by mental health professionals.
Sources: wsws.org, nouvelles-du-monde.com
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4695
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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