nearly a thousand people demonstrate in Saint-Etienne at the call of the inter-union, which “fears for jobs and the integrity of the group”

Nathalie Devienne (Force Ouvrière) regrets that, in this matter, “the financier comes first”.

The Casino inter-union is calling for a demonstration on Sunday December 17 in Saint-Etienne, in the Loire, while the distribution group is in serious financial difficulty. Nearly a thousand people are already on their way to the town hall and the prefecture. The assembly point was given in front of the group’s headquarters, then the procession set off around 10:45 a.m., reports France Bleu Saint-Etienne Loire.

Xavier Kemlin, the great-grandson of Casino founder Geoffroy Guichard, is present. According to France Bleu, he came to meet the union organizations to offer them a recovery plan in the face of the project of Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. The mayor of Saint-Etienne, Gaël Perdriau, as well as around ten other elected officials are also in the procession, where supporters of the AS Saint-Étienne club are also mobilized, reports the France Bleu journalist present on site .

While the group, in great difficulty with 12 billion euros in debt, has already sold several dozen stores to Intermarché, Jean Pastor explained on franceinfo that “employees fear for their jobs and for the integrity of the Casino group”. Several partial takeover offers have been submitted by competing mass distribution chains.

“Let’s show financiers that, behind their financial speculations, there are human beings and the attachment of a territory to a company.”

Jean Pastor, CGT Casino delegate, spokesperson for the inter-union

in France Bleu Saint-Etienne Loire

“They wonder how they will be eaten” and demand more transparency regarding the possible sale of the brand’s stores, develops the spokesperson for the inter-union, who questions “on the future of the group, the political will to preserve it”. The CGT delegate of the group therefore wants all the players in this affair to sit around a table to discuss a “real long-term commercial and industrial project”.

Force Ouvrière calls on Emmanuel Macron “so that the group is not dismembered”

For her part, Nathalie Devienne, from Force Ouvrière, regrets on franceinfo that in this affair “the financial comes first”. The other spokesperson for the inter-union fears that “social certainly comes last”. She therefore calls for “Emmanuel Macron [pour lui demander] to intervene on jobs, so that the Casino group is not dismembered”. Nathalie Devienne also wishes to demonstrate to businessman Daniel Kretinsky that the group’s employees are “capable of taking over Casino”.

Jean Pastor recalls that “behind a brand, there are men and women”. To defend this employment pool and “show that employees are mobilized and that we will not give up”the unions call for two days of strike, “December 22 for warehouses and December 23 for stores”.