Cold, humidity, 350 steps to climb: why Mont-Saint-Michel employees are on strike

An idyllic setting and yet a disrupted operation. This is the paradox of Mont-Saint-Michel, since December 26. Around fifteen of the 55 employees of the abbey, managed by the Center des monuments nationaux (CMN), are on strike. The building, one of the most visited monuments in France with 1.5 million tourists per year, has since either been closed to the public or opened free of charge. On the orientation panel at the foot of the building, a poster warned visitors this week: “Due to a social movement, the monument will open between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., visits and guided tours are canceled.” Two tourists having found the doors closed in the morning, Lise and Thomas, 25 and 24 years old, are “a little disappointed” to have come from Flers (Orne) without seeing the abbey, but believe that “the strike, they will not don't do it for nothing. At the end of the meeting on January 3, the strike movement was extended until Saturday January 6, when the strikers will decide on the continuation of the movement at a general assembly, after further discussions with management.

Why are these employees on strike? The claims are based on three reasons: nearly 350 steps to climb, humidity and cold. On the access bridge to the Mont, visited by three million people each year, a reception agent swept by the wind and rain for several hours jokes about this jewel, a “magnificent but poorly heated” office. Between the morning climb to reach the abbey, “the visits and those who stay on their feet all day, we all have joint problems in our knees and ankles,” laments Herminia Amador Chacon, of the CGT. The trade unionist drives the point home: “Our dedicated shuttle gives us ten minutes in the morning to climb the Mount to the summit and open the entire building to the public, we open late every morning because it’s physically impossible!”

The strikers (CGT, CFDT and Sud Solidaires) are demanding an increase in staff numbers, financial recognition of language skills and arduousness as well as improvement in working conditions. The investments are “not up to the level of this marvelous monument that is the abbey even though it brings in a lot of money for the CMN”, according to the trade unionist.

Arnaud Noblet, secretary general of the Mont Saint-Michel Abbey for National Monuments, says he “understands on a personal level” that employees sometimes feel “overwhelmed” during the high season. He recalls that “since 2018 the payroll has increased by 7%, we have gone from 55 permanent agents to 85 during the summer period, and the end-of-year negotiations resulted in the creation of 2.5 positions”. For him, the CMN functions “in equalization and we claim it, large monuments like the abbey allow small ones to exist”.

The few traders on Mont assure that they have not observed any difference in their turnover since the start of the movement. Solène, 41, who came from the Paris region with her family, “was pleasantly surprised to see that it was free”. “If we can, we will give an exit ticket for the monument and the staff,” she added.