Some unions hope to win the social stalemate with these threats. With less than three months before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, strike notices have been filed in several sectors. They are causing authorities and organizers to fear serious disruptions while France will be in the spotlight.
Civil Service: “No Olympic Truce”
Public service branches (state, territory and hospital) are threatening to strike during the Olympic (26 July – 11 August) and Paralympic Games (28 August – 8 September). The CGT civil service has given notice of a strike which runs from 15 April to 15 September.
Among the union’s demands, it calls for “long-term recruitment, salary compensation for professional restrictions caused by the Games, (…) the right to leave, chosen remote work and disengagement” and specifies that there will be “no Olympic truce”.
Future civil service reform criticized
FO could follow in the next few days. “On May 6th, all civil servants’ federations will meet at the CGT headquarters to see how we balance the balance of power against Minister Stanislas Guerini’s civil service bill,” confided Christian Grolier of the CGT. Federation of State Employees FO on April 10 at Release.
The demands come in a tense context where Stanislas Guerini has said he wants to “abolish the taboo of public service dismissals”. Last Saturday, minister Fr Transformation and public service, she was confident. “I don’t think there will be a strike during the Olympics, that’s the feeling I get when I talk to the agents,” he assured into the microphone franceinfo.
“We want to be considered,” say the garbage collectors
Garbage workers’ CGT threatens to see the streets of Paris strewn with litter during the Olympic and Paralympic periods. In each case, the unions filed strike notices on May 14, 15, 16, 22, 23 and 24 and from 1ahem July to September 8 clarifies the CGT-FTDNEEA (Waste Treatment, Water Treatment, Sewerage, Sanitation) press release.
The majority union is demanding a salary increase of 400 euros per month for all employees and an exceptional bonus of 1,900 euros for agents mobilized during the Olympics. “The city police have a bonus, we have the same employer. We too will have an overload of work with the announced 15 million tourists. We will really be mobilized and we want to be considered in this context,” emphasized Nabil Latreche, a member of the CGT-FTDNEEA.AFP.
“Some have canceled their vacations and we have no reinforcement” or guarantee of getting a bonus, he lamented.
Bonus from Paris City Hall rejected by CGT
Paris City Hall announced that “all agents who contribute to the success of the Games will receive bonuses ranging from 600 to 1,900 euros, depending on criteria for increased workload and mobilization”.
These terms have been rejected by the CGT, who “left the negotiating table at the first meeting” of labor with all representative trade unions, the town hall indicated.
Ile-de-France railway workers condemn “Contempt 2024”
In a press release titled “Contempt 2024”, published this Thursday, the SUD-Rail Île-de-France union announced that it has given strike notice on the 21st.
“It is time for the management to recognize the value of the work of the railway workers, without whom the smooth running of these Olympic Games is impossible,” argues the union, which regrets that the presidency is “content to hand out crumbs”.
SNCF is offering a compensation of 50 euros gross per day of presence this summer. Union SUD-Rail Île-de-France is demanding double the amount – and compensation also paid on rest days during this Olympic period – for all SNCF agents and a general salary increase of 400 euros per month.
The day after this strike there must be a meeting between the management and the unions. If the negotiations prove unsuccessful, the unions could decide to give strike notices during the Olympics. In March, the FO union launched a website called “Strike Promise” to allow rail workers to declare their intention to strike during the Olympics, BFMTV reported. At the time of writing, the counter shows 767 “pledges”.
RATP agents: negotiations were successful
If the question of the efficiency of public transport during the Olympics raises questions, the bonus negotiations were nevertheless successful.
Metro and RER RATP drivers who will work from July 22 to September 8 will receive a bonus of 1,600 euros, which will supplemented by a bonus for an “extraordinary event” in the amount of 44.10 euros per day worked in the given period.
This bonus may be reduced by 50% if the agent is absent for five days during the period and is not paid for more than five days of absence.
Agents will also be able to carry over up to 11 days of leave not taken in 2024 until September 2025.