François Ruffin multiplies the means to be heard. Because if his convictions find little echo under the gilding of the National Assembly, his documentaries are the mouthpiece of his battles. In Stand up women!, which hits theaters on Wednesday, he gives the floor to Hayat, Delphine, Sabrina, Assia and other maintenance agents,
accompanying persons with disabilities (AESH) and
social workers (AVS). Incomprehensible acronyms behind which hide invisible and indispensable workers.
“I see the meaning of the profession and its mistreatment”
This feature film is the story of the parliamentary mission on “link professions”, launched at the end of 2019, which resulted in
a bill end of September 2020. Objective? Improve and harmonize remuneration, count invisible working hours, set up continuous training, prevent work accidents for AESH, home helpers, extracurricular animators, childminders … A vast list of demands supported by two elected officials a priori poles apart. Mon,
Bruno Bonnell, LREM deputy, is presented as a follower of the start-up nation and neophyte of thea bill. The other,
Francois Ruffin (LFI) who never lets go of his journalist cap, carries his anger slung over his shoulder and has been interested in these bond professions since the 2000s.
“I am a professional in factory closures,” he quipped. 20 minutes. When I go back to see the workers, I see that the women have become childminders and social workers. From the outset, I see the meaning of the profession and its mistreatment. They like what they do, but some crack: “how am I going to manage to live with so little?” “
When the deputy gets the parliamentary mission, he wants to confront two worlds in a documentary. “At the Assembly, we have the decor, the staging, the extras, but nothing happens. We are a chamber for recording the decisions of the Elysée! There, we will collect the lives, the voices, the faces of these women. And we will see how it is digested by the Assembly… and finally rejected. It has a double discourse: social and democratic. “
Staggered, fragmented schedules and exhausting jobs
A good pretext to highlight the daily lives of those who take care of the most vulnerable. All of them earn less than the minimum wage for staggered, fragmented hours and exhausting jobs. More accident-prone than the construction industry… “Everyone crosses paths with an AESH in their children’s school, an assistant who takes care of an old neighbor, but no one knows the working conditions and the salary of these people”, regrets Hayat Matboua, one of the protagonists of the documentary.
She has been AESH in Amiens since 2014. A job for which she juggles several children with different disabilities, without any continuing education. Since the start of the school year, a 60-hour distance learning course is still planned. Clearly insufficient for Hayat Matboua. “In France, we regularly praise our inclusive school,” she insists. But behind this inclusion of children with disabilities, there are these women without status, without full income. We are the forgotten ones of National Education. However, despite the daily difficulties, these workers show their attachment to their jobs. “AESH is a great job,” assures Hayat Matboua. I too go to school to learn things with these disabled children. We are their crutch and they are a support for me. “
“The Covid-19, a revealer which opened even the eyes of the president”
Filming begins at the end of 2019, before the words “confinement” and “first lines” enter our everyday language. “The Covid-19 is then a revealer, which even opens the eyes of the president”, continues the deputy.
Emmanuel Macron ensures indeed on television on April 13, 2020 : “We must remember that our country is entirely dependent on the women and men that our economies pay so poorly”. “It would be time to remember that! annoys François Ruffin. My film fights against a kind of amnesia. Our goal is to keep these professions in the spotlight. “Especially in times of election campaign …
“Macron says the country relies on them. But like our ass on a chair that we don’t want to see attack François Ruffin. It is at the crossroads of three fights. Social first, to lift hundreds of thousands of workers out of poverty. Ecological, then. Is progress, tomorrow, to have 5G to know that there are no more olives in the fridge, or it is the quality of care and the links that we offer to our children and our seniors? Feminist, finally, because these are feminine professions. And if it is not these employees who do it, it is the wives and mothers who will do it at home for the elderly, children and the sick. “
Hayat Matboua adds: “It is not possible that in today’s society, with all the struggles waged for women, some live in such precariousness! The cleaning ladies of the Assembly get up at 4 am, cross Paris and earn a living. If tomorrow they are no longer there, it is not the deputies who will clean up! “
“After deputies, who could carry our cause? “
Unsurprisingly, the bill therefore did not convince the deputies. Hayat Matboua admits his disappointment. “When two deputies were interested in our cause, we felt considered, it was serious. In the end, the soufflé quickly subsided. We were not asking for enormous efforts. Even that, we are not granted. After deputies, who could carry our cause? But if failure leaves a bitter taste, there have been small steps forward. Most of the social workers finally obtained the Covid bonus, and a increase in their wages from 13 to 15%.
“The key is not to increase the salary, even by 10%”, criticizes François Ruffin. But to review the schedules. Rather than working early in the morning, then late at night, it is necessary to “go to work” on tour “: the carers should work from 7 am to 2 pm, then another team takes over. These women are allowed a social, family life, a full salary. »Who are often mothers, even single mothers.
There would also be an advantage for the people helped. “Today, we have” survival aids “who wash and eat. But carers should be able to accompany them to the cinema, to the cemetery, to the town hall. Which supposes that one accepts that there is an intense working time then another more loose. “
The elected representative still wants to conclude on an optimistic note: “the advances [salariales] do not change their lives, but it gives a little confidence: we can progress! We have to wage a battle so that the social question is not the great forgotten one of the presidential election. “