Between 3000, according to the sub-prefecture and more than 5000 demonstrators, according to the organizers, marched on Saturday in the streets of Pointe-à-Pitre, in Guadeloupe, at the call of eleven unions, to protest against all the problems that currently arise in the overseas department.
Health crisis, layoffs announced by companies because of the said crisis, respect for collective agreements, request for tenure, wearing of the compulsory mask for children at school from 6 years old or the chlordecone scandal: this great march crystallized many grievances expressed for several weeks, even several months in Guadeloupe.
The organizers had taken care to recall the barrier gestures and the necessary physical distance to be respected to prevent the procession from turning into an epidemic focus.
The pace of progress was very slow, each remaining behind their organization at a distance from the others.
"More than a year that we are sequestered", criticizes Elie Domota
Masked or not, the demonstrators demanded "hiring for all!"
", But also the end of" asphyxiation "of children from 6 to 11 years, for whom the wearing of the mask is obligatory since Monday in the department.
They mingled with the employees of the sand pits on the island, who have been on strike for more than three months.
"We are in an extremely difficult situation today and this at all levels: work, transport, water, daily life, chlordecone ...", thus summarized Élie Domota, of the UGTG, to AFP.
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“We've been kidnapped for over a year.
We are in the fight against the employers and the State which profited from the covid.
We are going to develop a platform of demands and go on the offensive on all the issues in Guadeloupe!
», Said the leader of the great protest movement that took place in 2009, paralyzing the archipelago for 44 days.
Max Evariste, secretary general of the Departmental Union FO-Force Ouvrière stressed the importance of mobilization "despite the Covid".
"We have the number, that's what makes our strength", he observed, announcing, a continuation of the movement, just like Teddy Tancons, SNCL academic secretary (national union college and high schools) who mentioned the " positions that are being abolished ”and“ our laureates who are forced to leave ”.
If nothing has been decided for the future, the unions have in any case been able to count their troops for possible consequences.
