Will mobilizations for wages resume in companies?

Mobilizations for salary increases have punctuated the life of many companies and public services since the fall of 2021. This Monday, September 5, the territorial agents specialized in nursery schools (Atsem) are called to strike for the CGT-education. And since the end of August, the notices follow one another in public transport in Dijon, Pau, Le Mans, Lille or Dunkirk (North). But at this stage, we are still far from the levels of effervescence observed until the summer in all sectors – from Paris airports to the SNCF, from large companies such as TotalEnergies, Thales or CapGemini to SMEs in the food industry, the aeronautics or leather goods.

“It’s still a little early to know if it can start again”, blow several union officials who take the pulse of their troops and seek to know if these local and sectoral mobilizations could lead to a major movement, and swell the ranks of the interprofessional day of strike and demonstration on September 29 – launched at the call from the CGT, Solidaires and the FSU –, or the “great march in the face of dear life” announced by the leader of La France insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for October.

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The reasons for the dissatisfaction are not in dispute. Aware that the measures taken by the government could not alone offset the rise in the cost of living – i.e. + 5.8% over one year in August – the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire himself legitimized the expectations of employees, by calling repeatedly over the past year, and again on August 30 in front of the Medef, “all companies that can” to increase salaries.

Tensions on the labor market make the balance of power even more favorable to employees, while half of companies are having difficulty recruiting.

Salary grids “caught up” by the minimum wage

Some professional branches have made a special effort. In the agri-food industry, for example, the social partners in the industrial charcuterie sector met on Thursday 1^er September saw a 4.7% rise in branch minima. “For ten years that I have been negotiating, this is the first time that we have signed such increases, recognizes Richard Roze, Federal Secretary FO-FGTA. But we could not do less, while these companies are faced with a lack of attractiveness of the professions, in particular because the grids [des salaires] have been crushed over the years. »

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