Several hundred employees of the Cora hypermarket group who denounce the overload of work and demand wages that allow them to "
live in dignity
" went on strike Thursday morning, we learned from concordant sources.
Employees, according to unions from more than a dozen of the 61 French stores, gathered noisily in a few hypermarkets such as Rennes, Bruay-la-Buissière (North), Mundolsheim-Strasbourg and Alès, at the call of the CFTC (46% representativeness in the group) and CGT (13%).
Read also Cora: the CGT fears the elimination of 1,077 jobs
The movement is "
fairly limited
" and "
without major disturbance
", reacted the management which lists "
between 250 and 300 employees
" mobilized.
“
Today, the minimum wage has caught up with a good number of employees and we are permanently understaffed, deplores Cyrille Lechevestrier, CFTC central delegate.
The CEO repeated to us in mid-December that he did not want to negotiate any increase or bonus.
So we launched a national strike movement.
The CGT joined us today and several hundred employees are on strike
”.
"
At Cora, the group and the stores return each time the ball for the NAO
" (compulsory annual negotiations), continues Julien Aquilina, CGT delegate.
“
But in 20 years, I have never seen an increase decided by the group.
In 2021, on average, we had between 0 and 0.5% of increase
”.
"
With the new management, the workforce began to plummet in 2016
," he adds, specifying that the workforce in Alès, his store, has fallen from 385 employees in 2015 to 289 today.
"
We are demanding 50 euros gross monthly increase,
" continues Mr. Lechevestrier, while the management finally made an appointment on January 6 to negotiate.
“
We want a 5% increase and a purchasing power premium as in 2020 (1,000 euros then per employee, editor's note).
If something correct is not put on the table in January, the movement will grow,
”he warns.
"
We hope to be able to return to the good social dialogue that usually characterizes Cora
", adds the family and independent brand.
In the framework of the NAO 2021, "
we could not find an agreement but to say that the increase in the remuneration is lower than the inflation, it is not true
".
“
In recent months, we have been particularly attentive to the concerns of employees in an unprecedented and uncertain context
,” continues Cora in a press release.
The French subsidiary of the Belgian group Louis Delhaize, which "
calls for responsibility
" at the end of the year, now employs less than 18,000 employees in the territory after various reorganizations.