Sanofi: demonstration in front of Paris headquarters against job cuts

Before the general meeting of shareholders, the signs went out. More than two hundred demonstrators protested outside the Paris headquarters of flagship French pharmaceutical company Sanofi on Tuesday against job cuts in cancer research.

Carrying signs like “Olympics = throw out oncology,” demonstrators took more winks to the Olympics, of which Sanofi is a partner, to denounce in front of the group’s headquarters a social plan announced earlier this month as a consequence of the group’s refocus on immunology.

Social collapse

The plan calls for the elimination of 1,200 positions worldwide, including 330 in France, mainly (288) in the Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne) site and, to a lesser extent, in Montpellier and Gentilly (Val-de-Marne). -Marne). .-Marl).

“It is our taxes that compensate for the social damage of Sanofi,” which “wants to feed shareholders at the expense of its employees and patients,” warns Fabien Mallet, a member of the CGT Sanofi France union, during a press conference. “Sanofi is cynically trampling on all the values ​​of Olympism,” condemned Christian Nicolas, a representative of the CFDT trade union from Vitry, for whom “Sanofi is only interested in expensive treatments that will be sold at high profits, like luxury goods.” The CFTC also criticized the “disgraceful attitude of our senior managers who choose to focus on the Olympics” that is “completely out of step with the reality faced by employees in the field.”

“Sanofi needs to be nationalized”

“Sanofi is also feeding itself on social welfare” and “Sanofi must be nationalized” to combat drug shortages and invest in research, Communist Party first spokesman Fabien Roussel said. “Research is not a sprint, it’s a marathon, an investment over 10 to 15 years,” recalls Dorothee Bourges, 46, an oncology researcher at Vitry. She says she is Sanofi’s “fifth head of R&D in 10 years” and regrets this “short-term vision.”

“I don’t understand how to do research without a researcher for a pharmaceutical company,” adds Isabelle Schreiber, 56, a research technician who says she is “disgusted” after 34 years at the company.

“There hasn’t been a drop of paint in our labs for 30 years, that’s reality, and we’re dismantling the closing facilities to get equipment,” she seethes. Next to him, a colleague is thinking about the future of donations that “clearly won’t be used for research.”