A cloud of umbrellas sheltering almost as many demonstrators as journalists in front of the Carlton. A banner to say “no” to the “pension reform”. But, no slogan, no music. “You see, we’re not loud. There’s a Harrison Ford press conference and we don’t want to disturb him. He is a guest at the hotel. We’re not here to disrupt the Cannes Film Festival. We’re just here to make our voices heard. »
Ange Romiti, CGT representative of the mythical five-star hotel on the Croisette, was at the head of a mini-rally organized this Friday, at midday, in the zone yet prohibited to all demonstrations by the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes. The union found the parade by settling on the forecourt of the establishment, a private plot, and therefore necessarily excluded from the perimeter defined by the services of the State. “We understand that there are security issues but democracy must be preserved, justifies the trade unionist. The Cannes Film Festival is also about freedom of expression with many films that deal with social issues. »
A demonstration stuck between two advertising structures
Before a next demonstration scheduled for Sunday, on the boulevard Carnot, outside the prohibited perimeter, the meeting was therefore given on a small paved square of the Carlton. With the blessing of the hotel managers. “We did not organize a walkout so as not to penalize the hotel’s activity. So we left it to us, ”said Ange Romiti again. The spot in question, a space of a few tens of square meters, is wedged between two advertising structures for productions that are further removed from societal considerations, one to the glory of the next part of the adventures of Indiana Jones and the other for promote the latest blockbusters from Paramount.
And, with a wet finger (by the rain which fell on Cannes this Friday), around twenty employees from the “hotel-restaurant and cafe sector” had gathered there. According to Céline Petit, the deputy secretary general of the Union CGT of the Alpes-Maritimes, also on the spot, they came “to reaffirm that the repeal of the pension reform is still required, but not only”.
Working conditions in the hotel and catering industry
This gathering “is also an opportunity to denounce the degradation of working conditions that these employees have suffered for many years and the hardship that will continue to increase with this reform”, she explained. “There is also the question of wages which do not move despite inflation. Some are still paid at levels below the minimum wage, ”she also got carried away.
“However, it is a whole sector that makes the festival work, still cursed Ange Romiti at his side. Because of salaries, hours, because these are difficult jobs, it is difficult to find staff. We are in short supply, including in the big hotels. But it is understandable. The current framework is not sufficient to encourage people to apply. Another part of the demands displayed on the spot, much more local this one, the CGT also denounces “the working conditions of a hundred Carlton employees, out of a total of 600, deprived of natural light in the basement” of the hotel which reopened after nearly three years of work. The labor inspectorate was seized.