Guadeloupe: what to expect from the meeting between Lecornu and the unions?

Matthieu Bock, edited by Clément Perruche 12:23 p.m., November 29, 2021

The West Indies have been experiencing a major wave of violence for about ten days.

Vaccination obligation for caregivers, chlordecone scandal, drop in living standards ... The Covid crisis is the last straw that broke a camel already well filled with demands ranging from employment to infrastructure development.

After having condemned the violence through the voice of Jean Castex, the government is now entering a phase of dialogue with union representatives.

Sébastien Lecornu, the overseas minister who spoke on Friday about the "autonomy" of Guadeloupe, is meeting the island's inter-union on Monday.

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The executive inflexible on the vaccine obligation

And the meeting promises to be tense. If there are negotiations, it is not even sure that they will start on Monday, because the trade unionists want to come to thirty. Otherwise, they say they will not sit at the negotiating table. Sébastien Lecornu, who will only stay there for 24 hours, would prefer that they come to ten at most, so as not to prolong the debates.

The negotiations will be all the more complicated as the unions have a list of demands which contains thirty points.

The abolition of the vaccination obligation, the reinstatement of all suspended caregivers but also older demands such as the improvement of living conditions and the massive hiring of young people appear on this list.

Sébastien Lecornu, he intends to ask them before any discussion to condemn the violence that has agitated the two islands in recent days.

And the minister warned that he will not suspend the law on the vaccination obligation of caregivers and firefighters.

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"They do not respond to our concerns at all"

On Friday, Sébastien Lecornu put the question of the autonomy of Guadeloupe on the table. A statement that makes people cringe, in the government as in the opposition. So much so, Gerald Darmanin said this Monday morning that it was not a debate on independence. However, this issue will be discussed at the meeting on Monday. The Overseas Minister explained that if the statute of the department was too restrictive, it might be necessary to think about another statute which would leave more freedoms to local elected officials, as is the case in Polynesia for example.

For Elie Domota, the leader of the LKP, a collective that brings together about fifty unions, this is not the subject.

"He made three press releases to announce answers to questions that were not asked. He spoke of autonomy. We do not have a line on autonomy in the platform of demands. He spoke of 1,000 jobs helped . We do not want subsidized jobs. We want long-lasting jobs for our youth, so that they can build life projects. He spoke about the support of unvaccinated caregivers to take them to the vaccination and if they refuse, they are fired. They do not respond to our concerns. "