Mobilization day in Casino. The group’s unions are calling for a general strike this Tuesday, while the company, in financial difficulties, has said it is willing to sell stores to its competitors. According to the latest information, 353 supermarkets could be sold.
Invited to the set of BFM Business, Nathalie Devienne, spokesperson for the Casino group’s inter-union, declared that the movement could expand. “The objective is to put pressure on the management to get a meeting. But depending on the response, it is not prohibited to carry out other mobilizations,” she said.
The spokesperson also highlighted the group’s communication for several months. “We did not receive any information from the management, we found out everything through the media,” he confided. Employees discover that their store has sold out when they turn on the television.”
Large surfaces for Auchan
Despite Casino’s critical situation, its stores arouse interest in a very competitive sector where the acquisition of new points of sale allows a distributor to increase its market share, a crucial factor. Intermarché already closed with Casino the purchase of 119 stores, plus about sixty as options, a few months ago. Together with their competitor Auchan, they have presented an offer for all stores, an Auchan representative, Serge Papin, officially indicated on BFM Business on Thursday afternoon.
The spokesperson was very concerned about the future of the group’s 55,000 employees in France. “They (Auchan and Intermarché, editor’s note) have already made the distribution they want. For Auchan it will be the large stores, Intermarché will recover the small ones, he indicated. It is possible that some stores and warehouses will not be absorbed. Deployed.”
Demonstration in Vitry and Saint-Etienne
A demonstration is planned in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), where the Franprix headquarters are located. Around 1,600 people work there, according to the CFE-CGC.
In Saint-Étienne, a demonstration is organized starting at 9 a.m. in front of the headquarters, an imposing ocean liner where 2,000 people work. The procession will leave for the prefecture and the town hall. The casino, founded by Geoffroy Guichard, after whom AS Saint-Etienne’s football stadium is named, employs around 4,000 people in the Loire.
Elected representatives of the municipal opposition group PS and several leftists from Saint-Étienne planned to demonstrate “to show their commitment” to maintaining activity in the region. Also present will be Quentin Bataillon, Renaissance deputy for the first constituency of the Loire, who spoke to AFP on Monday about a “very worrying” situation.
Source: BFM TV
