Vertbaudet: after two months of mobilization, the picket was evacuated by the police

They remain determined. After nearly two months of mobilization, striking employees who were picketing on the grounds of child care company Vertbaudet in Marquette-le-Lille (North) were driven out by police on Tuesday morning, CGT said on the spot. After the evacuation, which took place around 9:30 a.m., police officers kept the strikers at bay, AFP reporters say, while non-strike workers dismantled the picket line, according to the union.

About 80 warehouse workers, mostly women, have been on strike since March 20 at the call of the CGT, a minority in the company, to demand higher wages. They are asking for, among other things, “150 euros net per month to enable us not to survive, but to live normally,” according to Anais Vanneville, an order picker for nine years. In early March, CGT refused to sign the mandatory annual negotiation agreement (NAO) approved by the FO and CFTC, which together represent 63% of employees.

“Rage grows more and more”

Vertbaudet has “requested the assistance of the police” to “proceed with the eviction of all illegal residents of its site,” according to a press release from the prefecture of the North. She questioned the “numerous and serious disturbances of public order” that “were observed in recent days and threatened the physical integrity of people at the site, in particular hundreds of employees working there.” The prefecture refers, in particular, to “an intentional fire in an electrical substation.”

The management of Vertbaudet, for its part, confirmed in a press release that it remains “fully mobilized” to achieve “in the context of an open and constructive dialogue” with all trade unions “the resolution of the conflict in the company”. in the amount of “72 employees out of 327 at the facility”, the employees continue the strike movement.

According to the CGT, police had already intervened at the picket line on Monday and arrested two non-staff activists from the scene and placed them in custody. Asked by AFP, the Lille prosecutor’s office did not immediately provide a follow-up.

This evacuation apparently did not weaken the resolve of the strikers, who intend to continue their mobilization. “The rage is growing more and more, the level is exceeded, we will not let go, as soon as they evacuate the place, we will get down to business,” the AFP official said.