The portal on 27 January and after, workers must impose their demands
On Thursday, January 27, a day of strikes and demonstrations is organized by several trade union confederations. The world of work has many reasons to be angry and to want to say so loud and clear.
Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, France's five richest capitalists have seen their fortunes double. They now own as much as the 27 million poorest people. Bernard Arnault (LVMH) alone is said to have received €1.4 billion in dividends in 2021, or €160,000 per hour, because luxury bags and watches at €30,000 sell well. The companies of CAC 40 would have made more than 100 billion profits, or the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs paid at EUR 2 000 000 net, including contributions!
On the other hand, for the working classes, these two years have been synonymous with suffering, a harder and more precarious life.
Prices are rising all the time. This is the case for fuels, which reach record levels, higher than during the yellow waistcoat crisis. This is the case for food products, from pasta to eggs, from butter to baguette, from fruit to vegetables. This is the case for electricity, and gas, which has increased by 50 to 60 per cent in one year. More and more workers and retirees are now saving on meat, fish, heating, hot water or lighting. As for changing cars, it is simply impossible.
So, of the richer rich and the poorer poor, the story is known. But it's not inevitable. When workers mobilize, they can change the balance of power.
Leroy Merlin's employees have thus obtained an increase of EUR 65 per month for the lowest wages. Those of Dassault Aviation, a company that has just sold 80 Rafale aircraft in the United Arab Emirates and whose order book is full, claim 200 euros net increase: "two hundred bullets, or no Rafale". At Air Liquide, which has made record profits, workers are also fighting for increases. As for the employees of the National Education, they were on a massive strike on 13 January, against the deterioration of their working conditions, the freezing of their salaries and the casual involvement of their Minister Blanquer. And we could multiply the examples of challenges.
All are right, but these struggles must converge into an overall movement. Because basically, all workers have the same problems. They need to be involved in the election campaign. At a time when the airwaves are occupied by odious invectives against migrants or by chatter over the colour of the flag under the Arc de Triomphe, the need to raise wages, improve working conditions and hire must be put on the table.
Prices exploding? It is not the EUR 100 Castex premium or the derisory increase in the SMIC that will change anything. Workers Don't ask for charity! Wages, pensions and allowances must be increased massively. No employee or pensioner may earn less than EUR 2 000 net per month. Wages must keep pace with price increases: wages must be indexed to prices.
Are the rates unbearable and the working time is increasing? At a time when the country has several million unemployed, it is a scandal and an aberration. Labour must be divided among all, without loss of wages, taking advantage of capitalist profits. We have to hire massively in hospitals, Ehpad, schools, where staff shortages are glaring.
Big corporations feed their shareholders? They must be placed under the control of the workers, and expropriated if they oppose it.
These are the objectives that I have been advocating for years, and again in this election campaign. Of course, it is not the presidential elections that will make it possible to achieve these goals. None of them can be achieved without massive and powerful struggles on the part of the world of work.
- Prev
- Next
