Under heavy snow, dozens of demonstrators from different stations in the Alps blocked the Maurienne motorway for several tens of minutes leading to the tunnel that connects France and Italy in the town of Modane, then proceeded to blockade filters at the request of the gendarmerie.
All are asking for the reopening of the ski lifts and more state aid.
To avoid a "social catastrophe", Pierre Didio, the departmental secretary of FO, who organized the blockage, asks the government to ensure that people can go skiing and increase aid for seasonal workers.
A hundred thousand seasonal workers in the hotel and restaurant industry and mountain businesses are concerned, according to the union, and, without aid, "some have nothing left to live on, and that is unacceptable".
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Elodie Canale-Parola, 41, came from Alpe d'Huez so that the mountain world is considered.
Manager of 10 ski rental shops in this large Isère resort, she only opened one to rent snowshoes and cross-country skis, and was only able to hire 16 seasonal workers out of the fifty or so employees usually employed. .
She assures us “not to have the right to the solidarity fund” because she has just created her company by buying back the business funds and assures living today of the RSA.
“There is great distress among seasonal workers,” she adds.
Prime Minister Jean Castex must receive at the end of the afternoon on Monday the actors of the mountain world, who are waiting for new announcements to support a sector which is undergoing an almost total shutdown of its activity.