“She was not an ordinary grandmother. She was not gentle but always caring. His smile was just as charming as his hands were rough. » Arlette Julien, born in 1952, thus evokes Augustine, her paternal grandmother from Douarne, a figure in the great sardine strike, which started in November 1924 and lasted 46 days.
A conflict launched by women, workers in the 25 local canneries, at an insane pace of work, night and day, for an hourly wage of 0.80 F. They are demanding 1 franc per hour for all, an increase of 50% after 10 p.m. and after the tenth hour of continuous work, as well as recognition of the right to organize.
After having made their fortune during the First World War, factory workers were faced with large-scale mobilization. “I didn’t understand why the bosses made so much money, why our working conditions were so difficult and our salaries so low. It was Lucie Colliard who opened my eyes. Augustine told his granddaughter Arlette.
Lucie Collard was a pacifist, feminist and communist activist, whose mission in Douarnenez was to organize the workers’ movement. At his side, the future minister Charles Tillon, then a member of the Communist Party and regional representative of the CGTU.
“We were hungry”
When the strike broke out, Augustine Julien, aged 38, canned sardines at Parmentier. This woman, straight in appearance, who speaks French and Breton, will be asked among the factory delegates to be part of the strike committee set up on November 25, 1924. “She was only at school two days. It was my grandfather who taught him to read and write before the Great War. She owes him everything. »
From her teenage years, Arlette Julien spoke with her grandmother about the strike. “But it was especially in 1968 that we discussed it a lot. ‘The events of 68 have nothing to do with the sardine strike. We were hungry,’ she told me. » It was also that year that Arlette discovered her grandmother’s role as a member of the strike committee. “She took care of the soup kitchen. She counted the number of children per family to allocate meal shares. » And don’t hesitate to ask for foodstuffs from nearby farmers and traders.
Four children and a diminished husband
Fluent in French…
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