The parents discover the news this Monday morning: some of the employees of the Roosevelt crèche in Dijon are on strike. The announcement was made to the management in the early morning, at the start of service. A movement to denounce the reception conditions of 80 children cared for in the structure, and the lack of responsiveness of the public service delegate, People and Baby.
The most recent event has been disrupting the reception of children for a week. “The thermometer shows 12 to 14 degrees maximum”says an employee, who requested anonymity. The heating is out of service, it is therefore necessary to use small space heaters, which regularly blow the fuses, she says. No hot water either, to wash the children who get dirty. “It’s something that we have already experienced in October for a month and a half. There, we are afraid of the duration and we feel mistreated with the children. When we have an overflowing liquid stool, we wash the children with cold water How do you shower a child who has vomited on himself with icy, frozen water?
“We are aware that families will be impacted”
This employee also mentions the cockroach control, aging appliances, more than 10 years old, and which are not maintained, or even supply difficulties in certain basic necessities. “Physiological serum, tissues for example.” Result, great fatigue, and the feeling of being helpless in the face of these situations, which the employees claim to have brought up. “By dint of bearing, it’s like when you pull on a rubber band, after a while, it lets go.”
This strike day is therefore a way to alert parents, to demand better means and to call on People and Baby, the public service delegate to react quickly. “We are aware that the families are going to be impacted, but we clearly think that unfortunately, they are not aware of all these difficulties that we, on the ground, we experience on a daily basis, because we are trying somehow to remain benevolent, but it becomes more and more complicated. It is more and more difficult for us and it was necessary that today, the families also realize clearly what we are going through.