Interview with Amaria Gacemi –
sandwich maker and CGT rep at the striking Grand Littoral Carrefour supermarket in Marseilles

Red: How did the strike start?
Amaria: On the 1st of February, there was a national strike of supermarket staff and the shop was closed. We held a general assembly with nearly 200 workers, and we voted to carry on the strike indefinitely, with our own local demands. But management slammed the door in our faces, they would only say to us, “this is a national matter, we can’t do anything ourselves”. They said that there were only 30 strikers out of 586 workers, but if that was true, they wouldn’t have needed to put management staff to work as scabs in the shop in the days that followed. They were selling expired food for 4 days, because they didn’t clean out the aisles. The managers, all they know how to do is warm chairs (laughs). You can tell them I said that.

Red: What are your demands?
Amaria: The principal demand is to give full employment contracts to part-time workers, because the role they play is so important. There are too many sick leaves, too much absenteeism, we can’t go on like this. We also want to improve our working conditions. You have a three-minute break every hour, to go and smoke or piss, and you have 20 minutes to eat. It’s a long way to the food counter, so if there’s a queue, you know, you’re screwed. We also want to renegotiate the value of our meal tickets. Here, they’re worth 3.50, whereas it4s 4.60 in other shops.

Red: What are salaries like in the shop?
Amaria: Me, I earn 950 euros for 36 and three-quarter hours a week, counted as 35 hours. And that’s calculated taking into account my 12 years working here.

Red: What can be done to support your strike?
Amaria: It’s thanks to donations that we could organise the meal at the picket today. This demonstration, it’s given us a second wind, a real boost, it’s great to be here today. We want something concrete, we want negotiations, we don’t want any more part-time work. We want an end to being held in contempt. They aren’t even capable of increasing our meal tickets by 50 centimes. But at the same time the price of goods on the shelves is going up, some are going up by 50 centimes in a fortnight. We watch the croissants go up, we can’t afford them any more.

Red: Sarkozy says that you have to work more to earn more. What do you think of that?
Amaria: Sarkozy’s a prick. We find it hard enough to work 35 hours, he should come here and give it a go…

Interview held 12 February, by Vincent and Alice of the JCR, translated 17 March by Edward Maltby