A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #339 - Revolt and strike of undocumented immigrants in Emmaüs communities in the North (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

We are more than 250 days into the strike! Undocumented immigrants 
working in an Emmaüs community in Saint-André-lez-Lille (North) are 
organizing against their abject working and living conditions. They are 
exploited by their management, to work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day with 
only 2 weeks of leave per year for only 150 euros per month after paying 
fees for their accommodation and food parcel. During this time, the 
turnover of Halte-Saint-Jean (name of the community) is increasing 
sharply, with more than 30,000 euros per month in 2022. We can see the 
hidden work of undocumented immigrants practiced by this structure 
"humanitarian" has nothing to envy of the worst conditions of 
capitalism. The interview below gives voice to a supporter of this 
struggle who has followed the movement since the beginning. Other 
information and stories against Emmaüs' practices towards undocumented 
immigrants can be found on the Streetpress website.

1) Can you recall the causes of the strike movement at the Halte 
Saint-Jean in Saint-André-Lez-Lille? We are talking about hidden work 
and human trafficking, can you clarify?
The strike of the companions of Halte Saint Jean was launched on July 1, 
2023, a few days after the search of the community by the gendarmerie, 
as part of a preliminary investigation opened by the Lille prosecutor 
for human trafficking and labor concealed.
Several months earlier, six companions had filed a complaint against 
their manager to denounce undignified living and working conditions, 
racist humiliations and false promises of regularization at the time of 
recruitment. The 21 undocumented companions at the Halte had worked for 
sometimes more than six years, 40 hours per week for remuneration of 
around 150 euros after payment of a fee for their accommodation. In 
February, they discovered during a meeting with the director that they 
were not in reality companions but simple volunteers and that they were 
not declared to Urssaf.

2) In reality, how does an Emmaüs community work? What are the statuses 
of workers? Why do undocumented immigrants choose to become companions?
There are 123 Emmaüs communities in France. The welcome is intended to 
be unconditional and the companions are fed and housed in exchange for 
participation in the community's solidarity activity (reception and 
sorting of donations, maintenance, repair, sale, etc.). No relationship 
of subordination is supposed to exist between employees, volunteers and 
companions. The latter benefit from a set of rights enshrined in a 
decree concluded in 2008 and called OACAS - Community Reception and 
Solidarity Activity Organizations. It guarantees them social protection, 
a contribution to Urssaf and retirement, an allowance of 350 euros. 
Since the asylum immigration law of 2018, companions can claim a 
residence permit if they can demonstrate three years of work in the 
Emmaüs community and serious prospects for integration.
In recent years, undocumented people, often excluded from common law and 
sometimes threatened with expulsion by prefectures, have found refuge in 
these communities. OACAS status is often their last resort to obtain 
stable accommodation and regularization. They now represent more than 
70% of companions in France.
In reality, the rights of companions rarely seem to be respected. In 
many communities, work is imposed on companions who have no choice but 
to obey orders for fear of being put back on the street or having their 
request for regularization delayed. The bond of subordination lies in 
this complete power left to those in charge. No text regulates, for 
example, the expulsions of communities. Some managers tolerate work 
stoppages, others tear them apart.

3) How many days will the strike last in Saint-André? How is it 
structured? What are the supports?
The strike is still ongoing in Nieppe, Grande-Synthe and 
Saint-André-Lez-Lille. Today they are renewing their 258th day of strike 
in Saint-André! From Monday to Saturday, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., they set 
up their picket in front of the community with banners, tables, barnums 
and coffee. Since last July, they have increased the number of 
gatherings and demonstrations in Saint-André, Lille and even Paris. They 
ask to be recognized as workers and to be regularized for the damage 
suffered. Every evening, the strikers gather in a general assembly and 
take decisions that concern their struggle, and vote for its renewal.

The strike has been supported from the start by the CGT and the 
Committee of Sans-Papiers 59. Other supporters, autonomous or not, 
regularly come to the pickets, such as the FSE student union, France 
Insoumise, and Communist Youth. But the lack of support in this fight 
was glaring. The strikers often had to rely on themselves, whether on 
the pickets, in the actions, in the financing of their struggle, in the 
follow-up of their legal procedures. This limit is undoubtedly revealing 
of ideological conflicts which reside in the union or association 
structures around the struggles of undocumented workers. It also shows 
the support and impunity that Emmaus benefits from through its history 
and its solidarity actions, thus systematically watering down the 
capitalist violence reproduced in its communities.

4) It's a movement that has been going on for months with ups and downs 
in mobilization, that's normal. What are the main stages of the struggle 
in your opinion?
At the end of June, a few days after the gendarmerie search, all the 
companions were summoned and intimidated by Pierre Duponchel, the 
president of Halte-Saint-Jean. He refuses to hear their demands and even 
organizes a rally in support of the director, in front of active 
companions. This is one provocation too many and the strike is launched.
At the end of July, the director was still in office despite the strike. 
She continues to bring out donations to resell them. On July 28, the 
strikers asked to check her vehicle, which she refused. The director is 
then prevented from going out for more than three hours. The police 
intervened to attempt mediation, without success. At midnight, the 
director was forced to leave the community on foot, under police escort 
and to the jeers of the strikers. She will never set foot in Halte Saint 
Jean again.
On November 23, around forty cops intervened in the early morning in the 
Halte Saint Jean and confiscated the strike equipment. The companions 
resisted collectively and several were victims of police violence. This 
act of collective and spontaneous resistance gave a new twist to their 
struggle. The slogan "the fight until victory" took on its full meaning. 
They couldn't go back now.
On February 1, 2024, Emmaus France organized a march in Paris to 
commemorate the 70th anniversary of Abbé Pierre's appeal. The strikers 
from the North invited themselves to this peaceful march and directly 
challenged the president and the general delegate of Emmaüs France, in 
front of a stunned crowd: "Emmaüs is fed up, slavery is over!" ".

5) This is not just a Lille movement, it will become widespread in the 
North, particularly in Grande Synthe and Tourcoing. How did this 
extension of the struggle come about? Concretely on the field of 
wrestling, what did it result in?
The revolt of the companions of Saint-André quickly gave hope to the 
other northern companions who joined the movement. The CGT supported the 
new revolts which all had different demands but shared that of an 
improvement in their working conditions. All also denounced a form of 
racism rooted in the communities. In Tourcoing, the strike was 
interrupted after the intervention of Emmaüs-France which proposed an 
end-of-conflict protocol to some representatives of the strikers. The 
difficulty has always resided in the lack of support present on these 
various strike pickets.

6) There was repression from management but also from the State via the 
prefecture. Can you expand on these points? What were the repressive 
practices?
The management took the companions to court a few weeks after the start 
of the struggle and obtained the lifting of the blockade of the 
activity, under penalty of fines or police intervention. They cut off 
their meager allowances which until then allowed them to survive 
(between 150 and 380 euros per month). In Saint-André, management 
refused throughout the winter to turn on the heating in homes despite 
the negative temperatures, seriously endangering some 50 residents of 
the community, including several young children and elderly people. or 
seriously ill. In Dunkirk, the director decided to confiscate all the 
equipment that allowed companions to have fun: games, exercise 
equipment, tea.
On November 23, around forty police officers intervened without a 
warrant in the community of Saint-André to terrorize the strikers and 
prevent them from setting up their picket by confiscating their 
equipment. Several strikers were beaten and gassed before being 
prevented from leaving the community by police for more than 10 hours. 
Complaints have been filed by victims of this police violence.

On February 14, two strikers from Saint-André were placed in police 
custody following a rally in front of the town hall. They will be tried 
next July and are under judicial supervision.

7) What are the outcomes of the movement? Obviously, there has been some 
cleaning up in the management teams by Emmaüs France and the 
undocumented immigrants have just been regularized, announces the CGT. 
What are the realities behind its publicity effects?
In a press release, the CGT declares that it was received for Darmanin 
on February 29 and it would have obtained the opening of a 
regularization process for all undocumented workers on strike. This 
would concern the 502 Ile-de-France workers on strike since October 17 
in the interim, the 51 strikers from the North working at Emmaüs, the 60 
seasonal agricultural workers from Marne, the 7 Amazon strikers in 
Seine-Maritime on strike since May 2023. The minister would also have 
committed to reinstating the strikers in their jobs. Please note, these 
remain promises for the moment.
For the moment, there has been no regularization! The managers of 
Saint-André and Grande-Synthe are in retreat but still in office. In 
Nieppe, the board of directors resigned to make Emmaüs France react. 
Next June, those responsible for Halte-Saint-Jean and Nieppe will be 
tried for concealed work and moral harassment.

8) What is your view on Emmaüs France and the management of their 
employees? Publicly, they say that they are bad apples in Saint-André, 
but is hidden work and exploitation at work a more common practice?
I have just published on Streetpress three surveys on different 
communities in France in which companions denounce exploitation, racist 
and sexual violence. Each time, Emmaüs France had been alerted to these 
abuses but had not requested the resignation of the officials involved. 
There is therefore a real silence on certain malfunctions.
The OACAS status must be questioned and rethought so that companions can 
benefit from real protection in terms of rights with regard to work, 
housing, and their administrative situation.

9) What lessons do you think can be learned from this movement?
It is the state's failure to respect the right to unconditional 
accommodation that has allowed Emmaüs to develop and offer these 
unworthy reception conditions to exiled people excluded from common law. 
We can assume that the authorities turned a blind eye to these actions 
because Emmaüs' alternative actions allow them to evade their 
responsibilities and save a lot of money.

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4127
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