Saint-Etienne (AFP)
Casino gave up on Sunday opening its Géant hypermarket in Vals-près-le-Puy (Haute-Loire) with only automatic cash registers, after a first tense experience in mid-December in the presence of demonstrators in particular, we learned from sources. concordant.
It is a "provisional suspension to continue the dialogue with union representatives", told AFP the management of the Stéphane distribution group, which faces in Haute-Loire the opposition of an inter-union CGT , FO, CFDT.
This decision "does not change the current experiment on openings in fully automatic mode, which this Sunday involved 123 stores, including fifteen hypermarkets," said group management.
The first opening without cashiers or hostesses of this hypermarket in the Puy-en-Velay agglomeration took place on December 15 in a tense atmosphere at times, in the presence of numerous security agents and demonstrators who answered a call from the CGT.
Some 200 people according to the CGT, around sixty according to the police, then gathered, including employees, unionists and local elected officials.
Representatives of the intersyndicale had called this Sunday for a larger demonstration, before learning Saturday evening that the management finally gave up the opening in fully automatic mode scheduled from 1 to 8 p.m.
A gathering of around fifty people still took place in front of the store, at midday, in the presence in particular of the mayor of Puy-en-Velay, Michel Chapuis (UDI).
The trade unions indicated that they also received the support of the president LR of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region Laurent Wauquiez "who sent a letter to the Casino group and that the inter-union must meet next week", according to a CGT representative .
"We will remain very vigilant and ready to continue our actions if necessary," warned the unions, also "concerned about the reduction in the employment of security personnel announced in several large areas of the group, as of next week".
In Angers, the group's decision to open a hypermarket on Sunday afternoons with automatic cash registers had sparked controversy in August.
Justice had prohibited in October the employment, by a Casino service provider, of employees in this hypermarket to guide and help customers in their passage to automatic cashiers on Sundays after 1:00 p.m.
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