The strike of La Poste tellers on Tuesday, April 2, at the call of an inter-union union bringing together SUD-PTT, CGT, FO and CFTC, mobilized 8.9% of them and 3.43% of all of staff, according to management.
The inter-union had called the group’s tellers to strike to defend their working conditions, with SUD-PTT even launching a call for a general strike of 184,000 employees in France. The CFDT, the leading union among postal workers (24.5% in 2022), did not join the movement.
While tellers are called upon to work in increasingly vast territories, the inter-union denounces “the unilateral decision of the employer to authorize longer travel to several offices”explained Alain Pelletingeas, of FO, to Agence France-Presse; “up to 60 kilometers”said Pascal Frémont, from SUD-PTT.
The tellers, or “customer representatives”, were called to gather, particularly in front of the group’s different managements. Alain Pelletingeas hoped that “30 to 40% of staff concerned” mobilise themselves.
“Discounted salaries”
More broadly, SUD-PTT appealed to all La Poste employees. “While the company, 100% owned by the public authorities, sees its turnover and operating margin increase, La Poste staff are undergoing reorganizations, transfers and pressures of all kinds”, lamented the union in a press release last Friday. To his eyes, “the governance of La Poste is responsible for low wages, rampant job insecurity and the deterioration of working conditions and access to public service”.
“Part of the activity is subcontracted. We inevitably have the image of our cousins at France Télécom, now Orange, where all production activity was subcontracted. We are afraid of that”, argued Pascal Frémont. Its union recalled on Friday that La Poste had been the first French company condemned, at the end of 2023, for breach of its “duty of vigilance”, due to the working conditions of people without French papers in its subsidiaries. The group appealed. In 2023, La Poste suffered a drop in its net profit of 49%, to 514 million euros. Turnover amounted to 34 billion euros, an increase of 2.4%.