French Joint Strike

The Joint Français strike was an eight-week strike by workers at the Joint Français factory (a subsidiary of the Compagnie Générale d'Électricité) in Saint-Brieuc. It began on February 15, 1972, and ended on May 8, 1972, after management agreed to their demands.

Protesters during the French Joint strike

With its combination of wage and territorial demands, this strike sparked a movement of regional and national solidarity that made it an exemplary and inspiring movement. Its scale and impact make it a unique marker in the history of Brittany.^[1]

Background

The French Joint, from Bezons to Saint-Brieuc

Since the 19th century, France has experienced a phenomenon of concentration of economic activity in the Île-de-France region. The publication of the book Paris and the French Desert by Jean-François Gravier in 1947 contributed to bringing the need to decentralize the country into public debate.^[2]

Local socio-economic context and “Breton May”

After the Second World War, Brittany saw the emergence of a young working class, aided by the rural exodus, which saw a new population often "steeped in Catholicism" settle in the region's towns. Poorly educated, very feminine, and not very politicized, this population did not have the same "tradition of struggle" as the large old working-class centers of Brittany such as Brest, Lorient, or Nantes.^[3]

Progress of the strike

At the French Joint factory in Saint-Brieuc

Social climate

Two-thirds of the factory's workers are women,^[4] and a large proportion of the workers have only a low level of education, coming from the rural world or being seasonal workers or laborers.^[5] The factory is also the last in Saint-Brieuc to have joined the May 68 movement, following the intervention of people outside it.Other factories in the town such as Chaffoteaux et Maury or Sambre et Meuse are much more at the forefront of union demands.çais has the reputation of being only a factory for Specialized Workers characterized by a very high turnover.^[6]