Jean-Marc Barrey, former deputy national secretary of the CFDT in charge of fishing and marine cultures and general secretary of the CFDT-marins for Brittany, died on November 7, 2024. He was 69 years old. An activist at heart, Jean-Marc Barrey got involved at the age of 13, “even before being a sailor,” he confided to Télégramme in April 2006 when he retired. The son of a railway worker from Le Havre, he joined the maritime school in Audierne and at the age of 16 embarked in commerce for a six-month journey throughout Asia. He took his first union card in 1976 while he was with the Chargeurs reunion in Marseille. Jean-Marc Barrey explained that he joined the CFDT out of a taste for “freedom”.
Tropical tuna, Jégo-Quéré
The man, listened to, was involved in all the battles: on the retirement age in 1982, on tropical tuna ten years later. His “most important” fight. Among the big files he managed, let us cite that of Jégo-Quéré and the withdrawal of Pescanova which, as he affirmed in 2001, placed the risk of “social destabilization” on the port of Lorient. Jean-Marc Barrey explained that he had been “a happy trade unionist” but, the one who never stopped defending the fishermen, regretted not having “succeeded in getting artisanal fishing moving”.
To note
A final tribute will be paid to him on Thursday November 14 at 9:30 a.m. at the Kerlétu crematorium in Lorient.
