They are campaigning like their political counterparts. Three days before the first round of early legislative elections, CGT activists in Vienne stepped up strike action on Thursday, June 27, 2024, to fight the far right and call for a vote in favor of the New Popular Front. The CNPE Civaux section was the first on deck at 7 a.m., at the entrance to the power plant, to distribute leaflets to employees.
“The important thing is to be mobilized every day”
The members of the CGT of the Poitiers University Hospital imitated them, between 12:00 and 13:00, on the forecourt of the Jean-Bernard tower. In addition to the national context, they presented social demands related to the hospital. “We are demanding an increase in the index point, the regularization of precarious statuses, an end to bed closures, the return of retirement to 60, an end to 12-hour shifts…”, list Marie Brossard, activist of the section. A general staff meeting is also planned for this Friday, June 28, at 9 a.m., on the sidelines of the establishment’s supervisory board.
The CGT also initiated two rallies. In the middle of the morning, 80 people first gathered at the François-Mitterrand esplanade in Châtellerault. Julien Delhoume, from the local CGT union, called for a blockade at the « F-Haine ». “We meet many employees, comrades, disappointed, desperate by what is happening. We are here today to tell them that there is an alternative, that we can win and finally have, all, happy days.”continued a CGT activist into the microphone.
In Châtellerault, 80 people gathered on the Mitterrand esplanade in the town centre.
© (Photo NR-CP, Anthony Floc’h)
Then, around 2 p.m., more than 70 people gathered at the roundabout of Poitiers train station. A low turnout that pushed back any idea of a demonstration in the city center. But not to the point of discouraging Julien Hémon, secretary of the departmental union: “The important thing is to be mobilized every day. We are here to stand with the workers and all those who fight against the extreme right.” He and his comrades will be back this Friday, starting at 7 a.m., to distribute leaflets around the Poitiers Grand Large shopping center.
Despite tight deadlines, the CGT hoped for inter-union mobilization. But the CNT-SO (National Confederation of Workers-Worker Solidarity) organized its own rally, with a handful of demonstrators, in the morning in front of the rectorate. While nearly 80 people responded to the call from the Human Rights League at 6 p.m. in Châtellerault. And instead, Force Ouvrière announced its intention to file a complaint, “after being informed that its logo was used illegally as part of an unsigned, unidentified leaflet, which CGT representatives of the Poitiers University Hospital allegedly distributed”.
