Civil servants expected en masse in the streets of Nîmes this Tuesday March 19

L'intersyndicale gardoise espère la réouverture des négociations salariales au plus tôt. Midi Libre – Alissandre Allemand

À l'appel de toutes les organisations syndicales de la fonction publique appellent à une forte mobilisation des fonctionnaires ce mardi 19 mars. À Nîmes, le rendez-vous est fixé à 14 h 30 sur le parvis de la Maison-Carrée.

There is no need to beat around the bush, the urgency is clear to all: in a context of still sustained inflation, civil servants' salaries must be increased without delay. To those who shrug their shoulders arguing the "beautiful salaries" of the latter, the Gardoise inter-union of the public service replies: "from the point of view of a Parisian journalist who gives voice in demonstrations to executives who receive significant salaries.  Because in the field, as here, the salary of a category C civil servant does not exceed the minimum wage. And there are plenty in this case. 

A third less salary in 20 years

Whether they are members of the CFDT, the CGT, the FUS, Solidaire, FA, FO, Unsa or even CFTC, they are unanimous. “It can't go on like this any longer. Since the 2000s, civil servants have lost more than 34% of their salaries. Concretely, on an average salary of 1,500 euros, the employee lost some 509 euros in 24 years. That's the reality! ", notes Bruno Rivier, representative of the CGT hospital. And Sylvia Dacosta, general secretary of the CFDT health station at the Nîmes University Hospital continues, "we are opposed to the five points allocated to civil servants last January, but know that this salary increase is ;#39;student per month at 24.61 euros gross! ". At his side, his colleague Yves Charrois specifies: "I have been working at the hospital for 44 years and I receive 2,300 euros gross per month. I'm 66 years old and I couldn't retire because it was so ridiculous to live decently."

No to merit pay

Same story from the FSU and Solidaire pour l'enseignement nationale, "today, it takes between 22 and 25 years of career as a teacher to arrive at a salary of 3000 euros net. We lost about 8 years in 15 years", calculates Emmanuel Bois for the FSU.

To these accounts are added  Emmanuel Macron's announcement of the prospect of a law aimed at recognizing, according to him, the merit of agents. "To speak of merit for us is to insult the professionalism of the agents", says Christine Boularasse for Solidaire. "Especially since depending on the sector' activity, this new law will not be applied in the same way. For us, for example, it will concern the entire team", explains Jean-Luc Pena for the FAFPT. "Concretely, if one of the group is not satisfied, the whole team is penalized".  

The union organizations therefore denounce a maneuver that risks creating divisions among agents and new inequalities. To say no to all these attacks on the status of civil servants, the inter-union is calling for a strike and a major mobilization on Tuesday March 19 from 2:30 p.m. at Maison-Carrée.