Lunch in a school canteen in May 2020 (illustration).

-

I. Harsin / Sipa

  • The city of Marseille, the CFTC-CFE-CGC and FO have signed an agreement governing the right to strike in school canteens.

  • The agents must declare themselves on strike 48 hours before, and cease work as soon as they take up their duties.

  • This agreement is a first step before more in-depth negotiations on the working conditions of agents.

  • For their part, parents of students remain skeptical, fearing that work stoppages will take over if responses are not provided to the chronic understaffing of agents.

From the start of the January school year, a new social situation will be imposed in the schools and nurseries of Marseille.

The city has announced that it has signed an agreement with the main trade unions on the minimum service, which must be ratified on December 21 at the next city council.

It imposes on the “tatas”, as they are called here, a 48-hour notice period to declare themselves on strike.

But above all, agents will have to exercise their right to strike as soon as they take up duty and not, as is often the case at present, for one hour during duty time.

"Salary deductions will be more important, it will have a lot of impact on what are called pearl strikes", recognizes Pascal Rué, secretary general of the territorial agents of Marseille, whose union is no longer the majority in the city but continues to weigh symbolically.

"We were not in a blocking position, we had every interest in finding an agreement," he continues.

In fact, this agreement, also signed by the CFTC-CFE-CGC alliance, stems from the recent law on the transformation of the public service.

It allows local authorities to negotiate on the continuity of public service in several areas, and in particular collective and school catering.

Olivia Fortin: “It's unbearable for everyone.

"

Without an agreement reached within 12 months of negotiations, the law provides that the town hall can then itself set the rules of the game on, for example, the function and the number of agents essential to guarantee the canteen service.

"It's been a month since the discussions began, we managed to find an agreement quickly," says Olivia Fortin, assistant to the city of Marseille, in charge of the modernization and quality of municipal services.

No angelism for as much, side town hall as side unions.

This device is a first stone to the building, before the round of negotiations from January on the overhaul of the school in Marseille, a file on which the new majority is eagerly awaited.

"As long as we do not manage to resolve the problem of working conditions, we will continue to have absenteeism", states Olivia Fortin.

For her, this agreement on the right to strike is still a major step forward.

“If there were to be a strike tomorrow, it would be within the framework of social dialogue.

On the current strikes, we have no interlocutor, no demands, no dialogue, the agents do not follow a local strike notice.

This does not provide a solution, it is unbearable for everyone.

"

The parents' anger

Could there be a glimmer of hope for the parents of Marseille who juggle with these repeated canteen strikes in schools?

The situation is not new, but it has become even more acute with the application of the health protocol.

“I'm waiting to see, reacts Séverine Gil, president of the association of parents of students MPE13.

In all companies, when there is a deep social malaise, we find other means than strike.

The evil, it is before, in the lack of personnel.

"

"I want to believe it but I'm not sure that the agreement will calm the spirits of the tatas," says a mother of the APE of the La Parade school, in the 13th arrondissement.

I am not against the right to strike, I see their working conditions, I support them.

There may no longer be strikes but sick leave.

"

"We are asking for solutions, for the town hall to open a public market to call on temporary workers to replace the staff who are absent or not numerous enough," she continues.

We cannot communicate with the central town hall, we only receive standard emails in response.

»She does the count: since the start of the school year, the school has reached 14 days without a canteen and 6 days closed.

With about twenty schools, and she hopes for more by then, the association is organizing a gathering of parents in front of the town hall of Marseille next week, before leaving on vacation.

Society

Confinement in Marseille: "It's going to be a mess", the health protocol complicates the situation in the canteens

Society

Bouches-du-Rhône: In Trets, the students of a teleworking teacher can finally return to their class

  • Education

  • Marseilles

  • Society

  • public school

  • Strike