More than 200 undocumented workers began a strike movement coordinated by the CGT on Monday at at least eleven sites in Île-de-France to obtain their regularization, the union said.

"We want the papers, we want the papers / We want, we want, we want the papers," chanted at the beginning of the afternoon nine striking Malian employees, supported by CGT executives, in front of the very touristy Café Marly, in front of the Louvre pyramid, AFP noted.

Catering, delivery, cleanliness and interim

After discussions with management in front of the establishment, they secured an appointment inside later in the day for a negotiation session. From the heart of the capital to Essonne and Seine-Saint-Denis, the companies targeted are in trade, catering, delivery, cleaning and temporary work.

At Targett, an interim company in the Latin Quarter, there is no picket line because “there was an agreement.

The company will provide the necessary documents to apply for a work permit "for undocumented migrants," said Marilyne Poulain, from the Confederal Directorate of the CGT.

In Sépur, a waste collection company from Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), "it's an entire organized system, with manifest temporary abuse and extremely difficult working conditions", she described, recalling that the concerned garbage collectors "continued to work during the confinement".

"In all my life, I had never struggled like this"

Makan, 33, in "extra" at Café Marly since the first day of his arrival in France in 2018, has tears in his eyes when he mentions the seven months of confinement, from October 2020 to last May, during which, the restaurant closed, he neither worked nor received a cent. In the absence of a contract, he could not benefit from "partial unemployment".

“In all my life, I had never struggled like this, even when I was a student in Mali,” adds the one who says he was helped by his brothers to be able to eat.

Cap screwed on his head, Makan demands a permanent contract to have papers and so that his employers "no longer take advantage of the situation".

"We want to work regularly, and pay our contributions regularly, like other employees," he adds.

When questioned, the restaurant's managers indicated that they would speak at the end of the negotiations.

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