The municipal police are angry. Since November 1, around ten trade union organizations, federations and professional associations, grouped within a collective, have called on agents to go on an indefinite strike for minutes. “We will not be overzealous, we will no longer issue fines for inconvenient parking or small infractions, unless we observe dangerous behavior, such as a red light running,” explains to 20 minutes Thierry Colomar, president of the National Federation of Municipal Police Officers of France.
According to this brigadier, who has been working in the south of the country for around twenty years, the movement would be very popular. “According to initial feedback, more than 40% of the 26,000 municipal police officers have declared participation,” he announces, recalling that “64% of fines are drawn up by them”.
These are some of the announcements made by the Prime Minister on October 26 that ignited the powder. In response to the urban violence in June after the death of young Nahel, Élisabeth Borne proposed expanding the powers of municipal police officers by giving them new prerogatives. “We absolutely do not agree if there is no social counterpart,” insists Thierry Colomar.
“The profession is suffering”
Representative of the Unsa union on the Municipal Police Advisory Commission (CCPM), Manuel Herrero explains that agents have been entrusted, over time, with “more and more missions, more and more prerogatives”. “But salaries have never increased,” he regrets. “We practice an increasingly risky and underpaid profession. However, we were present both during the “yellow vests” and during Covid-19. The profession is suffering. »
The mobilized agents are demanding an increase in salary scales and a move to a higher category, as was the case for prison officers at the end of February. “Municipal police officers participated in the fight against urban violence. On the ground, we do the same work as the police or the national gendarmerie, except that we do not carry out investigations and we do not take complaints. But the dangers encountered are the same,” insists Thierry Colomar.
“This PV strike is only Act I”
The angry municipal police officers are also opposed to a government project to modernize their compensation system, less favorable according to them, and to the failure to take into account a monthly compensation in the calculation of their retirement pension. “Our salary is cut in two: there is a part in salary and a part in bonus, but which is not taken into account in the calculation of retirement,” laments Manuel Herrero.
A meeting with the Minister of the Civil Service, Stanislas Guerini, is planned for November 14. In the absence of significant progress, the police are threatening to take to the streets. “This PV strike is only Act I of the mobilization. We are going from strength to strength,” says the president of the National Federation of Municipal Police Officers. “The mobilization is very important in big cities like Paris, Marseille, Toulouse or Bordeaux. We then plan to no longer collect parking fees, which concern the markets, the terraces… We could also go on strike physically this time,” announces the representative of the Unsa union. Before warning. “If this is not resolved quickly, we will disrupt the Olympic Games. If we cannot count on the government, it will not be able to count on us. »