Éditions Hatier employees on strike against the proposed sale of the historic headquarters in Paris

There were 70 of the 200 employees of Éditions Hatier who responded to the call for a strike launched by the unions, Tuesday January 21, 2025 in Paris. They protested against a proposed sale of the historic headquarters of this house, indicated the inter-union.

Fear of degraded working conditions

According to the CFDT and SUD, this moving project is “solely motivated by financial considerations” and “imposed at a rapid pace”. The parent company “wishes to sell the historic offices of the house located at 8 rue d’Assas in Paris”, in one of the most expensive neighborhoods of the capital.

The group’s project is to move all of Hatier to its headquarters in Vanves, a town bordering Paris in Hauts-de-Seine.

But the unions are worried about the density in the Hachette Livre building, where, according to them, working conditions will be significantly degraded and where cohabitation with Hachette Éducation risks leading to job cuts.

They demand “the guarantee of maintaining the workforce” and various measures to “limit the impact of open space” and loss of purchasing power and quality of life caused by this move.

No spokesperson for the management of Hatier or Hachette could be reached on Tuesday January 21, 2025. “Our management, that of Hatier, is a little mute faced with our demands, since she told us that it was a shareholder’s decision. She had no choice in the location of the move,” declared the CFDT union representative. Andrea Freire à l’AFP.

A historic address

The 8 rue Assas has been the headquarters address of the publishing house founded in 1880 by Alexandre Hatier since 1910. And the building is owned by Hachette Livre.

Hatier is one of big names in school publishing in Francewith textbooks from kindergarten to higher education and brands as well-known as Bescherelle or Annabac, among others. Since 1996, the company has belonged to Hachette Livre, a group that itself came under the control of billionaire Vincent Bolloré at the end of 2023.

With AFP.

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