Cannes Employees Call for Strike Demanding Unemployment Benefits

Brian Welk
·2 min read

UPDATE 5/7 with response from Cannes: A French labor group representing freelance workers at film festivals across France is calling for a strike ahead of the Cannes Film Festival in response to a looming change in French labor law.

The collective called Sous les écrans la dèche (Broke Behind the Screens) says that a new policy due to be put in place by the French government threatens to slash their labor benefits in half. They’re calling on the Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off next week, to meet them halfway with a collective agreement that would give them 18 months of backdated unemployment benefits.

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“Our warnings and demands have been received with polite consideration so far, but no concrete measure has been offered by the CNC or the Ministry of Culture,” an open letter obtained by IndieWire reads. “That is why the upcoming opening of the Cannes festival is leaving us with a bitter taste.”

In a joint statement in response to the labor group, the various French film festivals, including Cannes and three other festivals for which the group are freelance employees, the employers said they’re aware of the challenges faced by staff due to the new unemployment rules and are prepared to engage around the negotiating table, despite the urgency ahead of Cannes beginning next week.

“In order to undertake a constructive reflection aimed at reforming the status of these workers, all the festivals concerned, the institutions, and the unions need to come together around the bargaining table,” the statement reads. “This is the work that must now be undertaken collectively.”

France has a system for freelance workers in which they can receive benefits (called “indemnities”) when they’re not working. But to qualify for benefits, they have to meet a certain number of hours worked. The bar they have to meet is being raised beginning July 1, so freelancers would have to work more to earn what they’re making today. The group says the change in the law could slash their benefits by more than half of their current wages.

The collective is calling for a strike on Cannes and all its sidebars in the hopes that Cannes can hire them full time and help them match the wages they’d otherwise lose under the new law.

Cannes runs from May 14-25. Read the full statement from Sous les écrans la dèche below, followed by the response from Cannes and other festivals:

For a year now, we, members of the Sous les écrans la dèche (Broke Behind the Screens) collective, have been warning about the growing precariousness of the people working in film festivals.

We go from short term missions to periods of unemployment, and despite the intermittent nature of our profession and our striving for the circulation of cinematographic work, our activity does not fall within the French intermittent status benefit plan for show business workers!

The latest reforms of unemployment benefits in France and the one scheduled for July 1st of this year, which will be passed by decree, are further hardening the benefit rules for employment seekers.

These reforms are throwing festival workers in such precariousness that the majority of us will have to give up our jobs, thus jeopardizing the events we take part in. Therefore, we demand that the organizations which employ us be affiliated to a collective agreement allowing us to be hired under the status of show business worker’s intermittence and that our positions be integrated to the unemployment benefit system, retroactive to the last 18 months.

Our warnings and demands have been received with polite consideration so far, but no concrete measure has been offered by the CNC or the Ministry of Culture. That is why the upcoming opening of the Cannes festival is leaving us with a bitter taste.

In a context of extreme vulnerability and absolute emergency to protect our work, and after consultation and vote of the members of the collective, we call for a strike of all employees of the Cannes Film Festival and of its sidebars.

French Film Festivals Joint Statement:

“Further to the press release circulated by the Sous les écrans la dèche protest group, the Festival de Cannes, the Quinzaine des Cinéastes, the Semaine de la Critique and the ACID wish to emphasize that they are aware of the difficulties faced by some of their staff who, working on strings of contracts for film festivals, are affected by the reform of the French unemployment insurance scheme, and must grapple with a drop in their benefits. Faced with this situation, we hope that solutions will be found, and are prepared to set up lasting dialogue conditions to support them. Aware of the sounding board that the Cannes Festival and its parallel selections represent, we understand the timeliness of these demands. But in order to undertake a constructive reflection aimed at reforming the status of these workers, all the festivals concerned, the institutions and the unions need to come together around the bargaining table. This is the work that must now be undertaken collectively.”

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