2023-12-04 18:52:43
A Casino supermarket in Sainte-Hermine (Vendée), December 4, 2023. STEPHANE MAHE / REUTERS
Wind of panic among Casino employees. While the distribution group, in great financial difficulty, is seeking behind the scenes to separate itself from its hypermarkets and supermarkets under the Casino brand, where nearly 18,000 employees work in France, all of the food chain’s unions (SNTA–FO, CGT, CFDT, UNSA, CFE-CGC) called on employees to go on strike on Tuesday December 5 to denounce “lack of consideration” towards them and “the worrying situation regarding the future of the integrity of Casino”.
A rally is planned for the morning in front of the historic headquarters of the Casino group in Saint-Etienne, which employs 1,770 people according to the brand, but also in front of the Franprix head office in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne) , where a few hundred people work. Nearly 1,000 employees have already responded to the call.
Left without any information following the media revelations of the maneuvers of Jean-Charles Naouri, still at the helm of the group, aimed at reducing the number of nearly 400 stores, employee representatives met in an inter-union meeting on Tuesday, November 28. They asked to meet the management of Casino as well as the consortium bringing together Mr. Kretinsky, Fimalac (the holding company of Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière) and the British fund Attestor, which is due to take control in 2024 following a capital increase of 1. 2 billion euros and the abandonment of 5 billion in debt by creditors, according to the agreements signed on July 27.
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Employees’ requests have so far gone unanswered. On the Casino side, exchanges are limited to “legal formalities to validate administrative processes”, reports Nathalie Devienne, SNTA-FO delegate. While on the side of the Kretinsky clan the ” a few ” discussions with one of its representatives “were of no use”. “We had the impression that he was trying to take the pulse of the atmosphere internally rather than giving us information”deplores Ms. Devienne.
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Contacted, Bercy indicates that “the interministerial committee for industrial restructuring is obviously ready to receive [les représentants des salariés] like he already did” in the past, but recalls that the remarks of the Minister of the Economy made in July “remain relevant”. Bruno Le Maire then declared that the State would have “two points of attention, the solidity of the industrial project”on the one hand, and employment, on the other hand, in particular “the future of the group’s 50,000 employees” in France as well as “the future of the 1,500 employees in Saint-Etienne”. “There is no question that the historic headquarters of the group will be threatened by the takeover, whoever the buyer is chosen”he estimated on July 11 during questions to the government in the National Assembly.
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