Strikes of undocumented workers spread

Beginning April 15, the start of the tourist season, 1,300 undocumented workers—mainly from West Africa—went on strike and occupied their worksites throughout Paris and its suburbs to demand full, legal status in France. The strikes are being coordinated by the General Confederation of Workers (CGT), one of the five major union confederations in France, and Rights Now (Droits devant!).

Most of the strikes were against restaurants—both chains and very posh ones, hotels, janitorial services, landscaping and construction companies doing building renovation and maintenance. Some of the strikes also demanded higher wages and better working conditions. Many of the workers have five, seven or even 10 years on the job.

According to Francine Blanche, the CGT organizer who has been coordinating the strike, 830 requests for work visas had been filed with the government by April 25, and she expects another 150—mainly of women who are home health aides—to be filed on April 28. A few have already been granted.

The strikes pose a major political problem for the Sarkozy government, which made expelling 25,000 undocumented immigrants a year part of its electoral platform and a premise of its unofficial alliance with the fascist National Front (FN). The government of Spain legalized nearly 570,000 workers in 2006 and Italy legalized 500,000 the same year.

Brice Hortefeux, minister of immigration, told the French newspaper Le Figaro, “Without ambiguity, there will be no massive legalization.” He insists that it will be done on a case-by-case basis as the law requires, even though the vice-president of the FN, Marie Le Pen, is calling for a mobilization against any legalization.

The immigration department estimates that there are between 200,000 and 400,000 undocumented workers in France, while the associations of restaurant and hotel owners estimate that there are at least 50,000 to 100,000 undocumented workers in France’s restaurants and hotels.

Without these undocumented workers, the tourist industry in France would not be able to function. Andre Daguin, head of the hotel association, has publicly called for the legalization of at least 50,000 workers.

Legalization, according to some public opinion polls, is supported by over 60 percent of the French. Legalization would protect the workers involved from deportation. It would also give them the right to get the health care, the pensions and the other social benefits that come out of their salaries but are currently not available to them because of their legal status. If they become legal, they can also bring their families into the country.

According to the French newspaper L’Humanite, the delegation of strikers that went into the Ministry of Labor April 16 was supported by a large number of elected officials, progressive organizations and ordinary citizens. Local support groups for the strikes of the undocumented have been set up along with strike-support collection boxes in workplaces where the CGT is strong.

Blanche thinks the strikes could spread because the CGT has been getting calls from all over France from undocumented workers and the situation has been a major topic in the French media the past two weeks.

The CGT organized a barbecue April 26 for all the strikers at the offices of the Federation of Janitorial Companies, which have been occupied since April 15. When the Federation asked the court to order the cops to clear its building, the court turned down the request because it wasn’t filled out properly.

While the owners of the companies where these 1,300 workers are on strike are suffering economically from the loss of business, it really is a political strike against the deeply unpopular government of Nicolas Sarkozy. With the support of a powerful and militant union confederation like the CGT, with public opinion and justice on their side, these 1,300 courageous workers have a good chance of winning.