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Monday, November 14, 95% of laboratories remained closed. The profession does not want to lower its prices to offset the profits made during Covid-19. The strike is expected to last three days.
The doors of a laboratory closed for strike, Monday, November 14. The image is unpublished. In Besançon (Doubs), the movement caught many people off guard. “I have to have surgery on Wednesday morning, I absolutely need a PCR test to have surgery. Because of their strike, I will postpone my operation which is urgent”annoyed a man.
The three-day strike is massively followed. Concentrated in large groups, the laboratories received a billion euros in profits before the Covid-19. With the pandemic, they would have reached seven billion. The executive is asking for an effort on their part to the tune of 250 million euros, by lowering their prices.
“We were good soldiers, we were on the front lines, we worked a lot. We had a pay for this work and there, we are told, on this balance, we must give back part of it”, explains Henri-Pierre Doermann, CEO of Novabio Laboratories. The establishments say they are ready to make the effort, but this year only, and not for four years as the government plans. They fear consequences on opening hours, and permanent closures. The unions announce that 10% of the sites would be threatened, a figure disputed by Medicare.