It's a complaint that we don't hear. Who pays attention to the strike of fifteen postmen here, eighteen postal workers there? However, reading the regional daily press, which lists this litany of conflicts lasting a few days, all over the territory, ends up raising questions. Let us cite, in disorder for a year, the strike in Saint-Malo and Dinard (Ille-et-Vilaine), that in Evreux (Eure), in Mirande (Gers), in Bétheny (Marne), in Bastillac (Haute-Pyrénées ), in Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantique), in Saint-Junien (Haute-Vienne) or Chelles (Seine-et-Marne) and again, this Wednesday, November 27, at Audierne (Finistère). There's a new one almost every week.
The reason for the discontent? Always the same. “Staff denounce the elimination of two distribution rounds, as part of a new organization in place since October”, thus teaches us The Telegram Tuesday. To Mirande? They emphasized “job reductions and increased workload as part of a reorganization plan”. In Saint-Malo? In Saint-Junien? “A reorganization”, encore.
This is because postmen are experiencing a great moment of change. Parcels replace postcards. In 1990, “70% of La Poste’s turnover” was carried by the mail, a rate which will fall “at 15% at the end of the year” 2024, its CEO, Philippe Wahl, reminded senators in April. This continued decline in volumes forces the group to reinvent itself and diversify its activity by offering new services. La Poste projects, for example, that its booming delivery of meals to the elderly will become the primary activity of postmen in 2035. The latter do not dispute the need for an evolution of the model and the profession. But this is not painless.
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“Each office is reorganized every two years, which is above all a way of eliminating tours and jobs on a regular basis. This is why there are conflicts everywhere,” summarizes Pascal Frémont, federal secretary of SUD-PTT for Pays de la Loire. A tour removed means so many streets reallocated to others.
La Poste emphasizes that the number of strike days has been steadily declining in recent years – 15,100 in 2023 and 13,600 in 2024 (cumulative of individual days not worked). And yet. “In Saint-Junien, 90% of colleagues went on strike. They are already unable to finish the tours decided by the last reorganization on time when a new one comes out to them. There is general fatigue, real suffering at work,” relates Laurent Madore, general secretary of the CGT-FAPT Haute-Vienne.
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