Call for strike at Orange to build “a balance of power” – archyworldys

Salaries, recruitments, investments: unions and Orange management are opposed on several points before the strike, Tuesday, September 21 – a mobilization that the organizers hoped to be able to use to create a ” balance of power “. CFDT F3C, CGT FAPT, FO Com and SUD-PTT: they were four in mid-July not to have signed the agreement resulting from the compulsory annual negotiations (NAO) on wages.

Two months later, the same four unions representing the operator called together for a strike, again for “Safeguard purchasing power” and with the ambition to create “The necessary balance of power”. In July, after management had granted a “Overall budget of 1.8% of salaries dedicated to salary increases for the year 2021”, the quartet had already deplored “A revaluation lower than that of the minimum wage”.

But the call for a strike was little followed by the employees. According to CGT FAPT, the operator’s third union, “Throughout the territory, gatherings took place on unit sites such as Rennes with more than 100 employees present, 40 in Carquefou, 35 in La Roche-sur-Yon, 80 in Lannion, in Montpellier, in Metz… ” In front of the Orange headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine), a good hundred people gathered in the morning (and “More than 250” throughout the day, according to the CGT). The group did not provide figures on the extent of the mobilization at the national level.

While Orange hopes to achieve savings of 1 billion euros by 2023, other demands are put forward during the strike: “Long-term recruitments”, “Stopping all restructuring projects” or “A massive investment in real policies on employment, wages, R & D and the development and maintenance of networks”. “In general, the platform of demands of the intersyndicale is quite broad”, recognizes Elisa Mistral, the central union delegate (DSC) of the CFDT, 2^e union at Orange.

No united union front

Only the CFE-CGC, the operator’s first union and signatory of the agreement following the NAO, did not join the call. “A communication on the strike, that is not done on unrealistic things”, denounces Sébastien Crozier. The president of CFE-CGC Orange, whose concerns converge with those of other unions on certain points, says he is perplexed about the demands “Excessive” of other organizations in terms of salary.

Even without the CFE-CGC, the CGT FAPT (3^e) anticipates a significant mobilization. She announces gatherings in “All operational departments” Orange, particularly in Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes, Bordeaux or Strasbourg. “There may be pockets of tension”, we admit on the side of the management of Orange, which is waiting to see “The result of the strike” to judge their magnitude.

Upstream of the mobilization, Orange launched last week an employee shareholding operation involving around 1% of the group’s capital and reserved for its 140,000 employees. Blamed also for the reduction of the workforce, the management puts forward the “Workforce and skills transition period” in which Orange is involved. Certainly, “We are not going to increase the overall workforce” but recruitments are planned “In the cloud, cyber, data and artificial intelligence”, defends the operator.

Orange management criticized

Tuesday’s mobilization comes in a context where its organizers deplore the impoverishment of exchanges with management. “We managed to have unity because we all agree that social dialogue is deteriorating”, argues Samira Gouja, central union delegate of CGT Orange.

“We can say whatever we want: when they come up with an idea, they don’t take our requests into account”, she says. Faced with this observation, the unions requested the opening of discussions with a view to “Method agreement on negotiations”. A first meeting devoted to this theme is scheduled for the end of September. “We are aware that we need a certain number of changes, but that’s the way to go” deplored by Jean-Marc Lis, the central union representative of FO-Com (4^e union).

“We had a CEO very attentive and for several months it is a little less “, he judges a few months before the end of Stéphane Richard’s mandate, set for mid-2022. Faced with these criticisms, the management ensures that the discussions around a method agreement are perceived as “An opportunity to revive certain agreements” of social dialogue.