2009 French Caribbean general strikes
The general strikes began over the cost of living, the prices of basic commodities, including fuel and food, and demands for an increase in the monthly salaries of low income workers.
[2] The strikes ended when the French government agreed to raise the salaries of the lowest paid by €200 and acceded to the strikers' top 20 demands.
[3][4] The strikes exposed deep ethnic, racial, and class tensions and disparities within Guadeloupe and Martinique and devastated the tourism industry of both islands during the high season.
[1] The average salary in Guadeloupe, the cause of the first general strike, is lower than in Metropolitan France[1] although the unemployment and poverty rates on both islands are twice as high.
Most of Guadeloupe's and Martinique's largest land and business assets are controlled by the "békés", the white European descendants of the islands' settlers.
The majority of the Guadeloupean and Martiniquean populations, who are of Black African or mixed race descent, live in relative poverty (to the békés).
[12] Protesters in Guadeloupe and Martinique accused the French government of ignoring their economic and political concerns during the 2007–2008 financial crisis.
[1] An umbrella group of approximately fifty labour union and other associations known in the local Antillean Creole as the Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP) called for a €200 (US$260) monthly pay increase for the island's low income workers.
[2] The Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP), which launched the protests, is also known as the "Collective Against Extreme Exploitation" in English or the "Collectif contre l'exploitation outrancière" in French.
[2] Jégo triggered much criticism among Guadeloupean strikers when he suddenly returned to Paris on Monday 9 February for a crisis meeting with French Prime Minister François Fillon.
[16] George Pau-Langevin, a French Socialist MP who was born in Guadeloupe but represents a portion of Paris, said that Guadeloupeans were not just protesting low incomes, but also "the indecent profits of big fuel and import-export companies.
[15] The strikes resulted in sporadic power outages and limited running water as utility workers walked off their jobs to join the protests.
[17] Protesters wearing hooded sweatshirts burned pallets and trashcans to block roads around the southern town of Le Gosier.
"[17] Armed "youths" manning a makeshift roadblock shot and killed a local union representative in the city of Pointe-à-Pitre just after midnight on Wednesday, 18 February 2009.
[11][18][19] The victim, Jacques Bino, a 50-year-old tax agent and union member who was returning home from protests elsewhere, was the first person killed during the strike.
The mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre, Jacques Bangou, reported that three policemen were wounded by gunfire in the Cite Henri IV section of the city.
[22] Police fired tear gas to break up rioters, but Mayor Bangou told the AFP that there were still "exchanges of gunfire" in the neighborhood.
[22] More than 500 French police officers arrived in Guadeloupe on 19 February in an attempt to quell the ongoing violence following Bino's death.
[23] Victorin Lurel, the president of Guadeloupe's regional council, demanded that the French government stop the violence and address underlying tensions.
"[23] On 19 February, it was reported that the French government had offered to increase low earners' income by almost €200, in line with unions' demands.
Benoit Le Cesne, the president of Martinique's hotel association, expressed concern over the potential negative effects on the tourism industry, "There are basically no more supplies, neither of gas nor food, and laundry services are no longer operating.
[17] On Thursday, 20 February 2009, Fort-de-France Mayor Serge Letchimy announced the cancellation of Martinique's annual four-day Carnival, citing the ongoing general strike and the death of union activist Jacques Bino on neighboring Guadeloupe.
[10] Tensions were especially inflamed when a French businessman, Alain Huygues-Despointes, was quoted as saying that historians should explore "the positive aspects of slavery" and that Martinique's mixed-race families lacked "harmony.
[7] Sarkozy simultaneously announced the creation of a new government council to review policy toward all French overseas territories,[7] a promise that he had made during the presidential campaign of 2007.
[7] French government ministers were asked to propose new long-term measures intended to modernise and stimulate the economies of both islands.
[7] Sarkozy suggested that the government may open up the islands' economies to more economic competition but did not appear strongly to support the wage increases demanded by protesters; "We should beware of false good ideas for a short-term end to the conflict".
[7] The strikes ended on 4 March 2009, when the French government agreed to raise the salaries of the lowest paid by €200[3] and granted the LKP their top 20 demands.
[4] French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Martinique and Guadeloupe in June 2009, as part of an effort to heal the rifts caused by the strikes.
[28] While ruling out full independence, which he said was desired neither by France nor by Martinique, Sarkozy offered Martiniquans a referendum on the island's future status and degree of autonomy.
[8] Martine Aubry, the leader of the French Socialist Party, warned of the risk that the protests could spread further to mainland France in an interview with Le Parisien.
