Toulouse. “On a stop decided to say”. Early childhood center staff on strike
Photo: Permanent Revolution
“We are coming to exhaustion”
While the start of the new school year reveals the catastrophic situation in national education, in hospitals as well as in childcare facilities nationwide, the Toulouse staff of these structures went on strike on Tuesday 13 September for decent working and reception conditions and for a revaluation of early childhood professions. About fifty strikers, parents of children welcomed by the structures on strike and supporters gathered at the rally called by Sud Solidaires in front of the Saint Cyprien childcare centre.
In childcare facilities, the teams are exhausted by the lack of staff. During the rally, the strikers recount the non-extended absences, the endemic understaffing, the abolished holidays, the precariousness of already low-paid positions through contractualization and constant overtime. At the early childhood center of Saint Cyprien, there are thus 5 agents short of the necessary quotas and a long-planned absence has not been extended for more than 6 months. “We are coming to exhaustion“, testifies a striker. “The working conditions are unlike anything, the only criterion is profitability. They refuse to recruit to save money on our backs.“
“We were very happy to find ourselves during the COVID crisis […] And there we come to a point of no return… We can no longer accept. ” ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/RlcBn2UX8c
— Permanent Revolution (@RevPermanente) September 13, 2022
Degraded working conditions faced by workers in this sector, mostly made up of women, are forced to adapt constantly in an attempt to preserve the quality of childcare and education. “We don’t want to do babysitting, it’s supposed to be a human job!“, explains a striker. Between this desire to preserve quality service for children and their parents and the lack of resources and staff, the staff finds themselves always taking it upon themselves. As a result, burnouts, intense stress , and endangering staff and children: “We are asked to come all the time. To work even when we are sick“, explains a striker. Faced with this untenable situation and in contempt of the state, the staff decided to say stop.
“We decided to say stop, we did not wait for the calls”
While a national mobilization date for all early childhood staff is scheduled for October 6, Toulouse staff and in particular the Saint Cyprien reception center could not wait any longer in the face of this critical situation. This is how they and they launched the strike day of the 13th, built on the scale of the city. Structures from the Soupetard, Borderouge – Trois Cocus, Mirail, Saint Simon, Roseraie, Amouroux and Saint Aubin sectors joined the mobilization.
“We decided to say stop, we didn’t wait for the calls“, presses during the speech a striker. “We said stop before our bodies and our minds call us cruelly to order, before the little ones and their families pay even more the price of a reception which is already carried out in degraded conditions despite our desire to impact them as little as possible on a daily basis.“
The strikers are demanding supervision rates allowing the safety of staff and children, decent working conditions, an efficient organization of the replacement of absent staff as well as a revaluation of early childhood professions. Demands to demand the fight will have to continue widely at the national level and in coordination with all the sectors mobilized for their working conditions.
Fighting together against the deterioration of working conditions
The rally showed the need and the aspiration of the strikers for a united and coordinated struggle around working conditions while the start of the school year reveals the crying lack of means and personnel in all sectors of the public service. Parents of children cared for by early childhood structures on strike expressed their support for the mobilization at the microphone. Political support also intervened, with François Piquemal, deputy France Insoumise of the NUPES and Jamal El Arch, elected municipal opposition. Diane, teacher and activist at Révolution Permanente and the CGT Educ’Action also took the floor to show her solidarity in the fight against the degradation of working conditions with which education is also confronted.
“We must all fight together […] I hope that we can all find ourselves together in the street, and it is something that we must bring to our unions” Diane, activist at Révolution Permanente and at the CGT Educ’Action. pic.twitter.com/6LGUj4QDv6
— Permanent Revolution (@RevPermanente) September 13, 2022
Above all, she supported the urgency of addressing anger. “We all have to fight together […] I hope that we will all be able to find ourselves together in the street and it is something that we must bring to our unions, in our political organizations.“
Across France, anger has exploded in education in the form of local strikes in the face of a particularly chaotic return to school. Sectors such as hospitals and today childcare are also mobilizing in the face of the same attacks on working conditions. In addition to the government’s austerity policies, inflation is now having a lasting impact on salaries. If it can be a point of support, the only day of the 29th posed by the union leaders is far from offering a plan up to the situation. As demonstrated by the strikers in the early childhood sector of Saint Cyprien and their supporters, the urgency is to develop slogans and joint mobilizations for all sectors in order to make the government and employers bend.