The CFDT called on Decathlon’s employees to go on a national strike in France on Saturday, Oct. 16. The union, third largest by employee representation, is seeking to raise employee compensation in view of this year’s “record profits” at the French producer and retailer of sporting goods.
According to a union spokesman, Sébastien Chauvin, almost 800 employees conducted a strike of at least an hour, with the strongest demonstrations occurring in the cities of Pontault-Combault, La Garde and Angers and further demonstrations on the way. “Since the end of the lockdown,” Chauvin told Agence France Presse, “working conditions have been terrible, with multiple records broken in terms of customer numbers and sales.” Most employees are earning “just above the minimum wage,” and so have not benefitted from a recent 2.2 percent rise in France’s minimum wage.
A union representative, Christophe Levier, also deplored the company’s encouragement of employee turnover by means of short-term contracts. “A fun atmosphere and pizza nights with a DJ are one thing,” he said, “but they won’t help you pay off a loan.”
Decathlon’s management, on the other hand, reported that only “a few stoppages” took place, usually lasting about an hour, with 1.13 percent of the retailer’s French of 22,400 people taking part. It also pointed to an agreement that was unanimously ratified with the unions in July, reducing the variable part of the compensation while increasing the fixed part, with a 4 percent raise. “Decathlon,” says the company, “is one of the few companies to have signed an agreement that greatly raises base pay despite an ongoing major economic crisis.”
