Several dozen undocumented workers have staged a protest at the Paris Arena II stadium being built for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Videos posted on social media show several dozen people protesting about the stadium. The stretch sign they unfurled in front of the building reads a call to block the Olympics.
The workers are demanding legalization in the country and are outraged at their working conditions, complaining about their “exploitation” by construction companies.
“We are determined to continue our fight against the exploitation machine and not to give up in the face of the contractors who do their best to wash their hands of us,” said a joint statement from the associations Gilets Noirs, CSP75, CSP20, CSP Montreuil, Droits Devant.
A similar action outside the stadium took place on 17 October. About a hundred people took part then.
At the same time, a total of about five hundred workers, mostly from Africa, went on strike at 33 companies, the union General Confederation of Labour (CGT) reported.
These are construction, logistics and cleaning companies based in Paris and its suburb of Saint-Denis, rsport.ria.ru reported.
Some labourers and rubbish collectors engaged in preparations for the 2024 Olympics arrived at the office of a company hiring employees for temporary work near the Stade de France stadium.
As the union pointed out, employees working for large companies are constantly overworked, but employers refuse to give them documents to avoid paying taxes. Some have been trying to get the documents since 2008.
According to the union, between 7,000 and 10,000 workers are legalized in France every year, while this market runs into the hundreds of thousands of workers.
It notes that in the Ile-de-France region, “between 40 and 62 per cent of service sector employees are immigrants”.
1,588 total views, 2 views today
