We have been occupying the Odéon theatre in Paris since Thursday 4th March 3PM.

For a whole year people employed in the sectors of Culture, Events and Tourism have been deprived of their work and livelihood. Faced with the saturation of hospitals due to the systematic dismantling of the public health service, the Government’s choice is clear : to give preference to production of consumer goods and mass markets whilst closing down meeting areas for creativity and social interaction. They are providing massive financial support for large companies but at the same time aiming to economise billions of euros through cuts in unemployment benefits at the expense of the ever-growing numbers of jobless citizens.

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Our demands :

 

• The total withdrawal of the abject reform of the unemployment insurance system which would reduce to poverty the 6 million jobless on the unemployment lists.

• Renewal of the aid accorded to intermittent workers in the entertainment industry to cover the « année blanche »* and the extension of this aid to ALL intermittent workers** impacted by the crisis, notably in the sectors of Events, Tourism, Catering, Culture…all of which have received zero aid since March 2020.

• A reduction in the minimum number of hours required to qualify for unemployment benefit for first-time applicants or short-term contract workers at the end of their entitlements.

• Urgent measures to guarantee access to maternity and sickness benefit for all short-term contract workers and writers.

• Financing of the Culture industry through a widespread programme supporting jobs in collaboration with the representative bodies for salaried workers in that sector.

• Means of guaranteeing social rights – retirement pensions, training courses, occupational medecine, paid holidays etc – whose funds are jeopardized through lack of contributions.

• In order to put forward our claims, the CNPS ( National Council of Professional Entertainment Workers) demands an immediate hearing with the Prime Minister

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* Année Blanche – a wash year : the extension of unemployment benefit for one year accorded to short-term contract workers with the status of intermittent worker in the entertainment industry ( artists and technicians employed in theatre, cinema, audiovisual) at the outset of the pandemic. This « année blanche » is to end on 31st August 2021. However, by this date very few people will have worked enough to renew their unemployment benefits and will find themselves in the same position as other short-term contract workers.
**Intermittent workers accumulate short-term contracts, known as discontinuous work : temporary and seasonal workers, extras in the hotel and catering industries, tour guides.

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Traduction Janice Banieux