The reception of Moroccan, Tunisian and Turkish workers

In the Alpine villages of Club Med

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Club Med,

Club Med was founded in France in the fifties and has become a multinational tourism company

The Club runs: 80 summer holiday villages 70 winter villages

The Club is established in nearly40 countries worldwide

a tourism multinational

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A few figures

2/3 of the activity takes place in Europe 70% of customers (GMs or ‘Gentils’ Members) are European

3 main categories of personnel: The 4,000 GOs (‘Gentils’ (Gracious) Organisers), permanent employees

of the main head offices (Paris and Lyon), the country head offices and the facility managers. They are under French employment contracts (open-ended contracts) and benefit from a company agreement.

The 7,300 seasonal GOs under fixed-term contracts according to the industrial relations legislation of the country in which they are working.

The 12,400 GEs (‘Gentils’ Employees), service, seasonal or permanent personnel who have to be covered by local collective agreements.

an average of more than 20 000 employees worldwide a majority of seasonal workers

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An international management of the workforce

The Club Med management has undertaken to hire local personnel to work as GEs in the Alpine villages for the winter seasons

To enable the GOs to come and work during the summer seasons in different countries around the Mediterranean and in other areas all year round

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7 seasons of industrial disputes toobtain work permits

In the eighties, a long-running industrial dispute set the Club Med management in opposition with the Tunisian and Moroccan service personnel working in the French Alpine villages

CFDT helped workers to organise themselves to sort out the position of immigrant workers with the authorities by obtaining work and residence permits in France

At the end of this action, this personnel benefited from:

the guarantee of being re-hired from one season to the next

the opening of discussions with the general management regarding employment and transnational movement of workers.

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The European Social Dialogue Committeeof Club Med

It was set up in September 1996

Between each season, it assembles:

15 representatives of the personnel

one representative commissioned by the European trade union (EFFAT), which acts as secretary of the ESDC

Despite the unprecedented crisis that European and world tourism has been experiencing since 2000, the ESDC is, through social dialogue with the GM, demonstrating its ability to: Intervene in difficulties in the

villages in Europe Propose initiatives and agreements

to reduce precarious employment and develop transnational movement of workers

Ensure that workers’ interests are taken into account in the running and future of Club Med

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An agreement on the movement of employees

In 2003, faced with the reduction of the length of the seasons for the personnel in the villages, EFFAT/UITA negotiated with the general management an agreement on the movement of employees (GE service personnel) coming from Europe and Africa to the European Union countries

A principle:Adherence to the International Labour Organisation agreements in the establishments in Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Croatia

A definition:The social conditions of transnational movement from the point of view of both status and social protection

A proposal:Initially, testing this agreement between Turkey and France

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Information meetings for Turkish workers

In order to implement attendant measures to the agreement on fundamental rights at work and the transnational movement of Turkish GE service personnel,

the secretary of the ESDC stepped in, from the winter of 2004, in all the Alpine villages where this category of migrant workers were working

to inform them of their rights and listen to the difficulties and problems they faced in France.

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Workers belonging to trade unions

During the course of these visits, we learned that the Turkish workers were members of the TOLEYIS trade union in Turkey

To consider cooperation between this trade union and that of the host country, a meeting was scheduled for 27 and 28 February 2006 in Istanbul within the framework of the European protection of trade union members in the hotel, catering and tourism sectors advocated by EFFAT

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Cooperation among trade unions

In the Alpine regions, a globalised tourism is developing.This development requires the trade unions of the host countries to enter into cooperation with the trade unions of the migrant workers’ countries.

This cooperation is essential in order to:

develop information and solidarity with these workers

facilitate an increase in trade union membership

avoid the transnational movement of workers becoming a means of social dumping by

multinational companies