France: Violence and sexist acts - The case which the CGT has stifled
TW: descriptions of violence, apologism
By Mathilde Goanec & Dan Israel
Originally published 27 JUNE 2018 in Mediapart
One of the members of the General Confederation of Labour’s (CGT) most powerful federations, a Parisian garbage collector, is implicated in acts of violence and for the sexist climate that persists in his union. The case could have become a positive example for the union, which is increasingly vocal about gender equality issues and awareness of violence against women. However, in 18 months, the organisation has not managed to resolve the situation, which turns into a quagmire.
Attacks at protests, sexist remarks, equivocal slogans, and even a physical confrontation: several women activists of the CGT have complained for many long months of a sexist climate tolerated within the CGT City of Paris, and the actions of one the most prominent trade union leaders of this union, a member of the Executive Board of the powerful Federation of Public Services. Despite repeated warnings, no sanctions were pronounced, according to a series of documents obtained by Mediapart and confirmed by activists at all levels of the organisation.
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| Against sexist violence, all together! |
The main events focus around the year 2016 and the beginning of 2017. They all concern the CGT union of the City of Paris (called "US", which has about fifteen unions representing different trades), and more particularly interaction between two of its organisations. On the one hand, the Paris cleaning union, which represents the city's garbage collectors, almost all men; on the other hand, the early childhood union, which brings together professionals, almost exclusively women, supporting young children. Both unions, as well as the US, are under the leadership of the Paris Departmental Union (UD) and under the authority of the Federation of Public Services, the premier federation of the CGT with 80,000 adherents claimed at the national level.
The letter of the eight women describes several problematic episodes, featuring men from the cleaning union, including its secretary general Régis Vieceli, attacking women, often from CGT Early childhood. These incidents vary in severity, ranging from oppressive remarks to violent altercations.
On March 9, 2016, during a demonstration against the labour law, a cleaner union activist yells into the microphone "Michel and Jacquie, take care of El Khomri", a direct reference to the porn site "Jacquie and Michel" and the then Minister of Labour. On May 1, 2016, the slogans are aimed this time directly at a CGT activist, who passes by the cleaning union's truck, recognisable within the thousand thanks to its red and black star and two mannequins dressed in the garb of garbage men who sit on the roof. "We'll fuck you, we'll fuck you," spits the speaker. Shortly after, at the microphone, Regis Vieceli invites women to a party organised at the Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne) incinerator, then occupied by his union, and offers activists "3 condoms and 2 mojitos, and if you are not CGT, 2 condoms and 3 mojitos".
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| CGT Early Childhood Logo |
"He grabbed me by the hair and pushed me violently on a table"
On December 2, 2016, in the morning, the tension rises sharply. A lively quarrel broke out between CGT officials of the City of Paris, in the premises of the Paris Labour Exchange, close to the Place de la République. At issue: a banal history of office occupation between, on the one hand, two women in charge of the CGT early childhood union of the City of Paris, and on the other, Régis Vieceli.
The stories of both parties diverge completely, except on the brutality of the incident. For Emma* and Olympe* (many witnesses have preferred to appear under aliases, see our black box), the facts are clear: it is an assault. "My back was to him when he caught me by the hair and pushed me violently on a table, said the Olympe the same day in the complaint she filed at the police station. While I was half lying on the table, I saw my colleague raise his arm as if to give me a punch. I wanted to avoid it but I still received a slight blow in the right jaw. Despite my colleague, who interposed between us, he did not let go and continued to shake me in all directions, tearing the sleeve of my T-shirt. He finally ejected me violently against a table that fell to the ground. "
The activist complains of back and neck ailments, says her body had scratch marks and a blow on her back. Her statements are confirmed by pictures taken immediately after the violent episode. After filing a complaint, she went to the North Paris medical and legal unit, which granted her three days off work. Very shocked, Olympe will then be stopped from working a further two months by her doctor.
The version of Régis Vieceli on these facts is quite different. In a letter also sent the same day to the Federal and Confederal Directorate of the CGT, he says that it was he who was "provoked and assaulted by two comrades". He assures that he no longer feels physically safe on the premises of the Labour Exchange, says he no longer wants to go alone and therefore decides to be "accompanied by my comrades from my union to ensure [his] safety" in future meetings.
Regis Vieceli, supported by written testimonies of men and women from several unions, still maintains this line. Contacted by Mediapart, he did not answer any of our questions. At the Federation of Public Services (of which he is a member of the Executive Board), Natacha Pommet, a member of the federation's national leadership, believes that doubt persists on the facts and underlines the "contradictions" in the testimony collected, encourages "caution". The complaint filed by Olympe was dismissed on 29 June 2017 by the prosecutor's office, on the grounds that the facts "could not be clearly established by the investigation" and that "the evidence is not sufficient for the case to be tried by a court".
In January 2018, Régis Vieceli was nevertheless blamed by his employer, the City of Paris. The City Executive briefing note states that "it is established that [he] has committed threatening and violent acts against his colleague and that the latter struck a piece of furniture as a result of these actions", but that it cannot "be clearly established whether he delivered a direct blow", or whether "his actions were made in response to a physical aggression" on the part of Olympe.
"If you want, I'll train you in my room" On February 17, 2018, the secretary general of the cleaning union again crosses a line against Rosa*, a young activist of the Technicians and Executives section of the City of Paris, while she is with several male comrades in an office of the Republic Labour Scholarship to prepare a union meeting.
"Three people have arrived, someone from my management and two other men, including this activist, who I did not know," Rosa tells Mediapart. He said, "If you want, I'll train you in my room." I did not react in the first few seconds, then I told him it was humiliating and degrading. I was in an office, in the evening, the only woman facing five guys older than me, I felt unsafe. Especially since he got upset, saying that I was sexist, that it was a joke, and that we can not say anything to the women ... I told myself that if it continued, he would slap me. I went out crying from the office. "
The following week, Rosa writes to the leadership of the union, asking that the official apologise and receive a booklet on gender equality. She did not receive a response. A month later, Rosa's union officially complained to Regis Vieceli himself, as well as the federation, the US and the UD, saying that "coming from a federal official, this attitude is simply unacceptable."
"We did not communicate on this because Regis Vieceli said he apologised”, explains Natacha Pommet today, who admits that the federation did not directly meet Rosa on this subject. “He regretted having said these things after drinking alcohol. But we recognise the context: a mostly male union, sexist behaviours that unfortunately the CGT, like the rest of society, is not immune from”. Rosa, for her part, continues to affirm: she has never received an apology from Regis Vieceli.
The discomfort prevailing in the CGT City of Paris around the facts denounced by the Collective Femmes-Mixité is probably also explained because there is a serious precedent. In 2015, an activist was unable to work due to illness for several months, after being the victim, according to her, of moral and sexual abuse. The episode involves some of the actors struggling with the current issues that hang over the union. The victim, interviewed by Mediapart, confirms the facts but does not wish to comment. Yet they have remained rooted in the heads of those who are concerned about the internal atmosphere. They note that after the illness of the activist in 2015, there was a period of calm, then the incidents have resumed, reaching a crescendo.
The Collective Femmes-Mixité was received, at its request, by Confederal officials, the highest echelon of the CGT. It was March 9, 2018, more than a year after the fact. "We were there to say that under no circumstances could the CGT accept a sexist environment or physical violence against a woman," said the confederal leader Boris Plazzi. It was necessary to remove any ambiguity because the comrades can have the feeling that one does not worry about what happens to them. We took time because we had to convince everyone to sit around the table. I am an activist, a leader, who tries to understand, to recut. I understand that activists find it too long. "The second meeting with representatives of the confederation took place Thursday, June 21, without further concrete progress in the eyes of the collective and the departmental union of Paris, which supports it.
For Philippe Martinez: "Unacceptable" abuses
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| Philippe Martinez leads a CGT contingent |
Symbol of the embarrassment surrounds the file, it is only orally that the cell presented its first annual report to the Executive Board on March 6, 2018, at the CGT headquarters in Montreuil. The report largely evoked, without citing directly, the facts that occurred within the CGT Paris. Contrary to the usual procedures, no written report has been circulated, even to members of the Executive Board who were absent on 6 March. Its conclusions remain inaccessible to the vast majority of the organisation.
"The general secretary Philippe Martinez is publicising this watching in the media, but it is muzzled”, say the insurgent members of the Collective Femmes-Mixité of the CGT Ville de Paris. “Not only does it not help us, but it also generates real anger. One has the impression that there is a difference of treatment when it comes to punishing not a simple member, but an official. "
"It is unacceptable that such abuses occur in our organisation. But the cell is not a court," Philippe Martinez tells Mediapart. The objective of the cell is indeed to "sensitise, train and listen to the victims," he says, but then "we pass the baton" to the federations, under the autonomy of the trade union organisations vis-à-vis the confederation that oversees them. "This is the principle of federalism, insists the CGT leader. In the confederation, if I learn stories of this kind, and I have evidence, I act, it has happened to me already. We assume our responsibilities but we are not entitled to take sides for this or that organisation. "
"The cell did its job, it went to the end. It has no decision-making prerogatives of sanction, contrary to the organisations concerned”, underlines for her part Sophie Binet, member of the confederal executive commission of the CGT, in charge of the questions of equality between women and men. “The confederation must put everyone around the table to find a solution. The process is too slow and laborious, but it is engaged. "
The responsible implicated, spearhead of the CGT for elections?
In 2013, the CGT appended to its statutes a charter dealing with sexism and internal violence. It states that any activist convicted by the courts for acts contrary to the values of the union must be removed from office. "When there is a judicial conviction, our statutes are clear. The problem is that issues of gender-based violence are under-apprehended by police forces and outsourced by the courts”, notes Sophie Binet. “But without judicial support and when, as in this situation, there is a difference of interpretation between the organisations concerned, it is longer and more complicated to settle. "
Marilyn Baldeck, head of the Association Against Violence Against Women at Work (AVFT), takes a sharp view of the whole affair. Especially since her association has partnered with the CGT to train its executives and support its activists on the issue. Today, she also works with the Collective Femmes-Mixité and believes that there is no doubt about the credibility of the facts described and documented, including physical violence. "To say that the file has been closed without further action by the justice system is a good outcome for some union officials," says the lawyer. “They are sometimes able to be distant from legal processes, but this time, the closure without follow-up being the end of this story? It is not possible. "
For Marilyn Baldeck, "the fact that a CGT official is filing a complaint against another CGT official is so far removed from the traditional union culture that it requires taking this matter seriously". But for now, it is far from being heard by the Federation of Public Services or the Cleaning Union. Because Régis Vieceli, on whom the debate crystallises, is a powerful unionist, almost unanimously considered a "hero of the struggles", all the more difficult to contest that he must be one of the spearheads of the CGT in Paris for the next professional elections.
"If we had condemned the one who is considered to be the aggressor, he would have had a very heavy penalty from the mayor of Paris, but he is an important trade union figure," defends the federation. "I'm a political activist, I'm sensitised to sexism, I know it's everywhere," notes Rosa. “But such a protection system, I have never seen that. I do not understand. At work, for less than that, we would all be up in arms ... "
The Federation of Public Services claims the course of "education and pedagogy". It assures that Regis Vieceli is gradually becoming aware of these issues, like the rest of his union. "We know that some activists have been sexist, and must take ownership of the changes," says federal leader Natacha Pommet. “But between the moment we are a "big macho" and the moment we are convinced of these issues, it can take time”. On the Confederal side, Boris Plazzi agrees:" I am in favour of the policy of small steps. At first, there was no question of talking about all of this, and since then there has been an internal discussion within the federation. Between what it said a year ago and what it is saying now, there has been a real journey. You have to train, you have to do pedagogy to get out of this type of practice. "
A letter denounces those who play "frightened virgins rather than fight"
In this case, the cleaning union and the Federation of Public Services have regularly downplayed the facts or dodged the issue. In March 2016, in response to the official protests of several trade unionists, including those in charge of the Paris UD, on the slogan associating Myriam El Khomri with "Michel and Jacquie", the cleaning union issued a letter denouncing those who play "frightened virgins rather than fight". The letter assures that the slogan simply referred to "two of our retired comrades whom we had the pleasure of hosting in the demo".
At a meeting held just days after the aggression against Olympe, bringing together officials of the UD and trade unions of the City of Paris, some supporters of Regis Vieceli have also persisted, that what was described by witnesses is the sort of "fight which is normal, man or woman". As for the accusations of touching, the response was equally flippant: "When there are many demonstrators, pressed tight, it is a normal that thing that happens".
For its part, the Federation recognises the touching without spin but claims not to have been able to go further. "The touching took place in the motorcade of Paris, in the union of Regis Vieceli, it is condemned and condemnable”, insists Natacha Pommet. “But it was impossible for the women who spoke to identify their attackers and to know whether or not they were part of that union. We know how these events happen, especially in the summer, with the distribution of drinks of all kinds, it is very complicated”. The federation also recalls that it has drafted a joint statement with the UD and a number of unions, including CGT Early childhood, after a difficult discussion. "It never appeared, and today we still ask the question of why?" says the organisation.
But it was especially around the physical confrontation of December 2, 2016, that the Federation of Public Services has delayed. It collected the testimony of those involved a few days after the fact but did not return its investigation report until March 5, 2018. From the first lines of this report, the tone is clear: "Beforehand, it is necessary to note that the issues mentioned above arise in a context of strong internal conflict within the CGT City of Paris issues of power and control of trade union freedoms and finances."
For several months, the US is indeed in a state of decomposition, three unions (including that of cleaning) have jumped ship, supported by the Federation of Public Services. Soon joined by five other unions, they now form a coordination on their side, unprecedented in the history of the CGT in Paris. Officially, the disagreement is political, but personal enmities also seem to be at work.
The conclusion of the federation's report assures that "sexism must be fought" and welcomes the fact that no new sexist statements or words have been reported during the recent period, "which seems to us to demonstrate that an in consciousness has taken place ". In doing so, it ignores the "training room" proposal made to Rosa, which was denounced at the time in many letters.
The report finally warns critics of the federation: "In an era of sharpening the class struggle, as our organisation faces decisive elections, the Federation believes that those who threaten to publicly defile the CGT act in the interest of our enemies. Asked about this very controversial tone, Natacha Pommet assumes: "There was a reaction from the federation to a number of unfortunate facts, we follow this trade union very closely, and therefore we find it detestable that this kind of things can go out anyway, while professional elections are coming. We think that it is not preferable. Last time, remember, we had already had the Lepaon affair, which had not been very favourable to us ... "
A petition to denounce sexism ... of accusers
The scandal of 2014 around the then secretary general of the CGT, Thierry Lepaon, accused of having his office redecorated at a high price, remains a trauma for many union officials. To the point that some people are now cultivating the ambiguity: "It is perhaps also because this man is a militant recognised in his militant activity that he may be the target of attacks, even if he has had unacceptable behaviour, "says Natacha Pommet.
A position shared by Maria Da Costa, another supporter of Régis Vieceli. A former head of the early childhood union and one-time secretary-general of the US, the latter does not question the "gender problem" or the importance of feminist struggle. However, she denounces what she considers as a manipulation: "We use a number of things to make sure that those who have a certain vision of unionism and struggle are harmed," she says.
Armed with this suspicion, Regis Vieceli's supporters have made their positions widely known. At the end of 2016, a petition hostile to accusations against the union leader has for example circulated within the US. "The fact of taking sides for the woman without waiting to know all the versions of the facts shows that the mentality of some (s) did not change on the superiority of the men who would be the strong sex, and, on the women, who would be inferior to the man, "assured the text. "We reject this retrograde, degrading and infantilising image of women. Just like the image of the alcoholic violent worker ... ", it continued.
On the door of the premises allocated to the cleaning union on the Bourse du Travail de République, a poster exposes the local doctrine: "Here we can laugh at everything, but not with anyone! "That is to say, not with" the fascists, the collaborators, the anti-communists, the breakers of the CGT, strikebreakers", nor with" the homophobes, the sexists, the misogynists "or ..." the misandrists ". Misandry, this hostility towards men, appeared in the local vocabulary following the incident of December 2 and its aftermath.
The pressures are sometimes more direct. Three days after Rosa's sexual invitation, one of her comrades, close to Régis Vieceli, wrote to her to express his regret at not having intervened directly that day, but also to dissuade her from reporting the incident to the federation. "Your first union action would be to feed what is already dividing our organisation," he writes. During a general assembly, the same activist and a handful of supporters of the secretary general of the Cleaning Union directly call out the young woman: "They have deployed the catalogue of strategies for the defence of sexism, she recalls. Stereotypical arguments: "You want her skin", "You instrumentalise feminist issues", "He did not rape you anyway, he is ready to discuss" ...".
The same author used the same arguments to blame Flora* for having signed the common letter alerting to the sexist climate in the US. Following the release of the letter, the young woman said she had "a difficult week". The activist calls her for 45 minutes to discuss disagreements between activists, and ask her to justify her signature of the letter. "He reproached me for attacking a super activist, destroying the CGT, making him want to leave" the organisation ", he told me that during all his years of activism, he never had was arrested on harassment issues ... "During the week, the young woman receives at least one call per day, together with an email or an SMS.
Trade union solidarity, therefore, plays a full role, acting as a protective barrier around the responsible party. "We know this type of strategy, they have been deployed in other types of organisations, including political”, Sophie Binet notes. “And that's what you have to work on. We must succeed in dissociating the militant collective from an aggressive leader. It is to that end that I keep saying that you cannot be a good union activist and an abuser. It's incompatible. "
"It still seems crazy to us that it happens in our organisations"
Benoît Martin, head of the departmental union of Paris, has been advocating feminist issues for several years and has taken a firm stance on the matter with the federation, the confederation, and two CGT publications. "I have been very exposed since. I am criticised for talking about these issues that would only be internal disputes. I believe that there continues to be a macho solidarity in my trade union organisation, obviously. But this may not be essential: there are clearly issues surrounding the preservation of the organisation. And to preserve is to be silent, even where it would be necessary to listen, to repair, to prevent and to sanction. "
Suffering is all the greater as union loyalty is strong. "We must read the resolution number 5 from the last Congress, in April 2016, underlines Benoit Martin. There is a formal commitment to combat sexism outside and in the CGT and to combat violence against women in the workplace and in the union. Some consider me "over-committed", but I simply exercise my responsibility to the CGT, which clearly claims to be a feminist union. "The departmental manager is proof of the exemplary fight led by his union within the International Labor Organisation (ILO) just recently. The CGT represents all French employees in the negotiation of new binding rules against violence against women.
For the confederal leader Boris Plazzi, however, we must understand that the union is living a new situation. "All this is very new at home, it falls on us, he testifies. If you ask us to talk about everything else, employment, social justice, etc., we will be inexhaustible. But before this kind of business, we are a little like a chicken in front of a knife. We are not seasoned, it seems to us insane that it happens in our organisations. "
The birth of the collective has been experienced by the activists who have constituted it as a lifeline, the opportunity to lead "a trade union struggle, noble and beautiful", bringing together women who sometimes come from different pathways and trades. "It has changed my life a lot, and this is the case for all of us because this aggression triggered our setting in motion, our personal and collective development," says Angela*. “Our story is also about stopping feeling guilty about what can happen to comrades, it is to tell us that the CGT means as much to us at it does to them. If we do not unite in a common struggle, it will never stop."
This new solidarity does not prevent either bitterness or sometimes the desire to slam the door. "I know that real values are carried by my union and it is this orientation that makes me want to stay, Rosa insists. For a year, I see a lot of evolution, the speeches are not quite the same, there is an awareness among some men and women. But what is tiring is to live sexism both outside, in the street, and in my union, which should be a space that protects us from all this. Today we spend a lot of time fighting around this issue when there are many other fights we would like to see."
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