The call for a strike was launched by the collective «Pas de bébés à la consigne», which brings together around fifty associations and trade unions.
2,500 people demonstrated in Paris according to the police, some 5,000 according to the organizers, singing «The overbooked nurseries and the overworked pros, it is the babies who are sacrificed».
Children’s toys, musical instruments, dolls and other accessories were carried by the demonstrators, some of whom shouted at passers-by: «It’s for your babies that we’re on strike!».
Adèle Reboux, 22, works in a crèche in Pré-Saint-Gervais (north-east of Paris) and denounces «exhausting working conditions».
«In addition to taking care of children, we must train those who have no qualifications», she says in reference to a decree published in July 2022. This text authorizes the recruitment of unqualified employees more easily and their training. internally to make up for the shortage of staff in the crèches.
«You have to fill the crèches as if they were ordinary shopping bags», regrets Miguelle Rimbert, 37 years old and educator in the Paris region, adding «in the crèche where I work, we are two educators for 63 children. Our projects do not can be accomplished».
The crèches employ educators, crèche auxiliaries, childcare workers, etc.
«Today, a nursery assistant earns 1,300 euros net at the start of her career, it’s far too little», regrets Sandrine Aragou, 50, auxiliary in Yvelines.
Demonstrations took place in the region, such as in Lille, Marseille, Bordeaux, according to the collective «Pas debabies à la consigne».
In France, the number of places offered by childcare establishments has increased over the last decade to reach 471,000 in 2019, most of them managed by municipalities. Nearly half (48.6%) of establishments report a lack of staff, according to a survey carried out by the national family allowance fund (CNAF) and published in July.