first strike in 60 years at Matmut
At the call of the inter-union of the mutual insurance group Matmut, a national strike took place on November 16, 2021. A first in the history of the company created in Rouen (Seine-Maritime) where the head office is located social.
La Matmut was founded in Rouen in 1961 under the name of “Mutual insurance company for mutual workers “. 60 years later, the small company has become a large group of more than 6,000 employees whose activities, via subsidiaries, range from insurance to banking services.
The number of its clients (called “members”) exceed four million.
“A conflict of values”
On November 16, 2021, 60 years after its creation, the Matmut experienced its first general strike.
At the call of five unions, the employees of the head office (in Rouen) but also of all the agencies and platforms in France were called to mobilize to expose the deterioration of working conditions.
According to Ludovic Barroin, CGT Matmut delegate, suffering at work has increased and affects all services. He explains that over the past four years, a new organization has been put in place whose purpose is to increase the productivity of employees, which, he says, is contrary to the statutes of the mutual society.
On paper it is true that we are a mutual, but for 3 or 4 years, we have changed our philosophy: we really become a company where profitability takes precedence, where finally the number takes precedence over quality. And that turns into social malaise and psycho-social risk for employees. “
VIDEO – November 16, 2021: national strike at Matmut
We got lost on the way, I think, in our history: our management committee wonders after 60 years by asking the question “What is the scarcity of being in Matmut?” Even though our statutes advocate the mutualist values of mutual aid and solidarity …
So are we still a mutual? “
For this first and historic strike, in Rouen, at the headquarters of Matmut, security agents blocked all access in the morning and only allowed employees with badges to enter, which prevented people from outside (employees of the network agencies). and journalists) to enter the courtyard to join strikers and union officials.
Social dialogue
Three hours after the start of the strike, and while the unions explained that the dialogue with the management was not broken, the Matmut group reacted to this social movement by setting out its point of view in a press release:
– The management of the Matmut group wishes to emphasize the overall quality of the social dialogue within the Group, for the benefit of its employees. The large number of company agreements signed in recent months testifies to the richness of these exchanges. Beyond the day of 16/11, naturally, the Management and the social partners will continue to dialogue and sign new agreements.
– For example, let us quote the agreement on teleworking signed unanimously by the representative trade unions as of October 2020. This agreement is particularly innovative, for the benefit of the 6,400 employees, in the context of massive deployment from teleworking, back to the unprecedented health crisis we are going through.
– Another example with the NAO 2021 having had on salary increases deemed “generous” by the economic press. This negotiation also takes place on an exceptional first relating to the 60th anniversary of the Matmut Group. For the Matmut Group, associated with profit-sharing and profit-sharing measures, this corresponds to a repayment equivalent to more than 30 million euros.
– Overall, in the continuity of the dialogue which has always prevailed within the Matmut Group and which makes the value of its model, its Management is in continuous contact with all its stakeholders, including the operators of the Intersyndicale.
– The management of the Matmut Group wishes to emphasize that internal developments in a general, economic, societal and technological context of strong transformation, which are therefore essential for any company.
– Consequently, it is a question of necessary evolutions (modernization of tools and working methods, in particular to allow more autonomy to the employees), ultimately to the benefit of the 4 million members who trust Matmut for the protection of their employees. assets, their health, their family unit …. As a mutual company, having only one public to serve (in the absence of shareholders), its members, the quality of service in front of them being surrendered is at the heart of his concerns. Management is particularly attentive to the way and the pace in which these developments must be monitored.
– The good success of the changes that have started within the Group also benefits employees, since they are the condition for the successful pursuit of the company’s development (as it has been for 2 years, in particular), which ultimately benefit employees (mechanisms increasingly remunerative incentives, etc.).
– Group management insists on the importance of mutualist values guiding the overall functioning of the Group and total respect for the company’s DNA. Proof of this is the recent unprecedented process of surveying all of the Group’s stakeholders (including 6,400 employees) to formalize the Raison d’être of the Matmut Group. The raison d’être must indeed also and above all serve its employees, in the exercise of their missions and the meaning of these.
At midday, the intersyndicale indicated that “a few announcements had been made in the various departments of the group since the announcement of the general strike, which proves despite everything that there is little to discuss. “
Union officials were hopeful of meeting the management of the Matmut group at the end of the day.