Before the withdrawal of the pension reform was imposed as the first demand of the most recent social movements, it was the defense of purchasing power that motivated most of the strikes in recent months.
Last year, in fact, wage disputes spread to various sectors of activity. This movement even started in 2021, when inflation returned at the end of the Covid crisis. That year, 73% of the companies affected by at least one collective strike indicated that salary was among the reasons for the strike, according to a study by Dares. This is 25 points more than in 2020 and 32 more than in 2019.
Wage increases are thus imposed in 2021 as the main demand of workers on strike, ahead of those related to working conditions (31% of companies affected by at least one strike, +7 points), employment (13%, – 1 point) and working time (11%, +2 points).
Overall, non-company related grievances were less frequent in 2021, with 64% of companies having experienced at least one strike, compared to 69% in 2020. By contrast, 47% indicated that the claims were due to company-specific reasons. 5 points more than in 2020.
Beyond the return of inflation, which is logically reflected in a rise in wage demands, the increase in protests linked to internal reasons is also explained by the drop in demands related to the pension reform, which worried the 40 % of companies that faced at least one strike in 2019 and 16% in 2020, when the reform that established a universal points system was still in the news. It should be noted that in 11% of companies, the reasons are both internal and external, the same as in 2020.
The big companies most faced with strikes
In 2021, 1.6% of companies with 10 or more employees in the private sector experienced at least one strike. This is a third more than in 2020. These companies alone employed 21% of non-agricultural private sector employees. In fact, large companies are more affected by social conflicts: 27.2% of those with 500 or more employees faced at least one strike in 2021, compared to only 0.5% of those with between 10 and 49 employees.
Industry is the sector most affected by strikes, with 3% of industrial companies affected by at least one collective strike in 2021. However, with disparities, particularly between the manufacture of transport equipment (10.2% of companies faced at least one strike, +1 point) and food manufacturing (2.2% of companies, +1.3 point).
In the tertiary sector, it is in education, human health and private social action where strikes are most widespread (5.4% of companies, +2 points), unlike construction where they are still rare (0.1% of companies affected).
58 days of strike for 1000 employees in 2021
If more companies were affected by strikes in 2021, these movements saw their “intensity” drop, according to Dares, which is based on the duration of the conflicts and the number of employees involved in them. Thus, with 58 days not worked for every 1,000 employees, the intensity of the strikes fell by 13% compared to 2020 (67 days) and 64% compared to 2019 (161 days).
If we focus only on companies that experienced at least one strike in 2021, the number of days not worked per 1,000 employees was 283, 23% less than in 2020 (368) and 56% compared to 2019 (646). ).
It is in the industry sector (89 days) and more specifically in transport and storage where the strikes have been the hardest with 325 days not worked for every 1,000 employees (448 in 2020). By contrast, there were only 3 per 1,000 construction employees. Finally, the tertiary sector is close to the average with 55 days not worked per 1,000 employees in 2021.
Source: BFM TV
