Human professions. Blockages in the Nord – Pas-de-Calais: “It concerns us all!”

This Tuesday May 14, 2024you may have been caught in blockages or filter dams, near Lille, Lens, Arras or other towns in Pas-de-Calais. It was a mobilization of collective of human professionsFor alert to the situation of the associations supporting vulnerable groups.

“Let us not be forgotten”

“Childhood in danger, disability, great exclusion, elderly people, sick people: all concerned! »: this is what we could read on the leaflets affixed to the vehicles of the demonstrators this morning. “We have simplified our language so that everyone understands that this concerns us all. (…) We want to stay in the news, so that we are not forgotten,” says Binh Co-Coulot, from APEI – Papillons Blancs du Nord – Pas-de-Calais.

This is a new action by federations and unions, associations, which for many months have been sounding the alarm about the situation in the social and medico-social sector.

Around 2,000 people mobilized

The human professions collective, formed in 2021 in response to the Ségur bonus, will continue its action in 2024. This Tuesday, approximately 2,000 people were mobilizeddepending on the participating associations and federations, either 650 vehicles in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais : 210 people in Arras, 400 in Béthune, 300 in Lens and 400 in Lille, in particular.

The demonstrators, who wanted to carry out a strong action to raise awareness as much as possible (institutions and funders, local and national politicians, but also the general public), were surprised by the way in which their action was received, in the street. .

“Many of the motorists showed their support. They asked us questions about child protection, for example. It perhaps allowed us to reach people who we would not have reached if we had not taken to the streets,” observes Binh Co-Coulot. It’s also a way for those present to feel encouraged.

Few vocations, lack of resources, administrative burden…

“With this new form of mobilization, we have reviewed and expanded our actions,” expresses Ahmed Hegazy, regional director of Uriopss. “The form is new, the substance is still the same: preserving the social”. The aim is to provide information on the issues that plague the voluntary sector and cause the closure of organizations, their financial deficit and/or a drop in activity, which is dangerous for the population.

Ahmed Hegazy mentions several essential aspects:

• The lack of attractiveness of the sector (salaries, difficult working conditions);
• The lack of resources granted to associations, which sometimes draw on their own funds, when they have them;
• Inflation, which has not been covered by the public to the necessary extent;
• The administrative complexity that weighs on organizations (a lot of management, reporting, heavy tasks that reduce time in the field, to support).

“We always have to do more with fewer resources,” regrets the Uriopss representative. A statement completed by Binh Co-Coulot: “Associations do not always file for bankruptcy, but sometimes they reduce their activity. It will be supporting 12 people instead of 16.” Or a doctor who cannot provide the necessary permanence in a nursing home alone, or even educators who cannot enforce the law on child protection… A danger for the vulnerable populations. It also means recruiting underqualified people, due to a lack of candidates.

10% of missing employees

Because the human professions sector suffers above all from a lack of personnel. Around 10% of positions are vacant, all sectors combined. ” We have 35,000 vacant positions, at the national level”, cites Guillaume Alexandre, general director of La Vie Active and representative of Nexem, who points to a “political will” which does not go in the direction of the associations in the sector. And added: “We are not giving up. We are more than employers or employees, we are also activists. We must alert the public authorities to the situation; if we waited for the government to act alone, we would not be up to our mission. »

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