“What we want is to keep the same level of purchasing power” | EUROtoday

In the central aisle of the Brétigny-sur-Orge hypermarket (Essonne), dozens of cabinets lengthy, clients stopped their carts overflowing with meals to look at an surprising procession move by. “Raise wages, raise wages!” », chanted, Friday March 29, round thirty workers, clapping their arms in an efficient din. At first stunned, a number of clients applaud in rhythm to encourage them. “We are poorly paid! We are poorly paid,” proclaim, an hour later, 15 kilometers away, their colleagues on the Villebon-sur-Yvette hypermarket (Essonne).

There have been one-hour walkouts like these in additional than 150 Auchan shops in France, in response to the inter-union affiliation bringing collectively the CFTC, FO, CGT and CFDT, united for the primary time within the historical past of 'Auchan. The unions known as for 3,000 to five,000 strikers (out of 59,000 workers) for this third day of protest in a month.

The obligatory annual negotiations (NAO) have simply ended with out settlement, on a unilateral choice by administration that workers contemplate “indecent” : + 1.5% for workers, + 1.2% for executives. “Inflation was at 4.9% in 2023, so what we want is 5%, to keep the same level of purchasing power. Today, the feeling of employees is that a salary is for three weeks, not for a month. notes Benoît Soibinet, FO union delegate in Brétigny.

“It was good to work here”

Auchan calculates in a different way, by including final 12 months's NAO to point a rise “cumulative” 8.1% for workers (+6.6% in 2023 and +1.5% in 2024), “these measures are beyond inflation over the period, estimated at +6.4%”, signifies the group World. Except that the unions contemplate that the NAO 2023 was not meant to anticipate the approaching 12 months, however to meet up with the extent of inflation on the time (at 5.9% over one 12 months in December 2022), which weighed closely on the buying energy of workers.

For a very long time, the latter felt slightly higher off than their colleagues in mass distribution. “When I arrived twenty-four years ago, it was good to work here: we had lots of bonuses, we were well paid”explains an worker within the butchery division. “There was the quarterly progress bonus based on turnover, different individual bonuses…”, lists one in all his colleagues, at Auchan since 1991. “ And then participation! provides one other, there for thirty-two years. Some years it was greater than a month's wage! It made it doable to make plans: purchase a automotive, do work on your own home… But there's nothing left, individuals are caught. »

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