on strike, the employees of a dairy products factory warn about their working conditions
Since March 7, several workers at the Yeo Frais factory in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) have been on strike at the call of the CGT. Wage insecurity, deterioration of working conditions and even “health risk” for consumers, the strikers claim to have alerted management several times. In vain.
The mandatory annual discussions between management and staff representatives came to an end last week. After yet another refusal on the part of the management to significantly increase the wages of some 230 employees of this Toulouse factory, the idea of going on strike materialized. It began this Monday, March 7, and since the start of the mobilization within the company, “we only felt contempt from the management“, explains the CGT referent to Yeo Frais, Arnaud Caraben.
When they were received by management last week, the spike in fuel prices had not yet taken place. And yet, employees had already warned of the decline in their purchasing power due to inflation and their wages which are not increasing. “Each month on one of the colleagues who are hundreds of euros overdraft, -200, -300 euros. The cost of living increased, the minimum wage increased, everything increased, but not our wages“says Arnaud Caraben.
This is the first time that the CGT was ready to agree to sign an agreement well below its demands
Arnaud Caraben, CGT delegate of Yeo Frais in Toulouse
So, determined to ask for a salary increase, the staff representatives try a primer. ”We were counting on an increase of 4%, the management did not want to go above 2.6%, whereas we are rather around 2.8% at the national level. This is the first time that the CGT was ready to agree to sign an agreement well below its demands“, concedes Arnaud Caraben. ”This increase represents barely fifty euros more for the lowest salaries. But, we were told that we weren’t going to be given more and that it was take it or leave it.”.
The agreement for a partial wage increase is not the only reason for the strike. According to Arnaud Caraben, working conditions within Yeo Frais have improved and deteriorated.
Acquired almost four years ago by Maîtres Laitiers du Cotentin, a cooperative agri-food group based in Normandy, the Toulouse-based company continued its establishment in the Haute-Garonne department more than 90 years ago.
“Two years ago, an internal investigation revealed that our working conditions were deplorable», Continues the worker. The investigations requested by an independent firm under the aegis of the management revealed a “suffering at work » without appeal, assures Arnaud Caraben. Some solutions had been applied by management to try to deal with it, but the striker assures us that “the management replied that putting resources in place takes time”.
Claiming a 16% increase in turnover between 2020 and 2021, the company would struggle to invest in the cost of its machines. “They are all aging and they are not maintained“, explains Arnaud Caraben, ensuring that he has alerted his superiors to this subject several times.
Could the obsolescence of certain machines compromise the company’s production? In any case, this is what the trade unionist asserts. “When you work with this rhythm on machines like these, because you take risks”. In detail, the production of certain products in small quantities involves a significant change in the workload of workers. “We are out of step, we accumulate hours, we have to check everything every thirty minutes. And in these moments, attention can decrease, and there yes, there is a health risk“says Arnaud Caraben.
Contacted, the management of Yéo Frais has not, for the time being, responded to our requests.