Mobilization in defense of collective catering!

This article has been automatically republished.

Orange (ex-France Telecom) is a former national public telecommunications service that has become a multinational in the telecommunications sector, with around 50,000 employees in France (and more than 120,000 worldwide). Cesson-Sévigné, east of Rennes, has the group’s second employment area Orange in France with more than 5,000 employees, not counting the many subcontractors.
Orange had its “flagship” built there in 2019. This new building, entirely made of concrete and yet poetically named “Atalante”, was designed to cram in all the employees present in other buildings around Rennes.

Initially, the Management did not want a collective catering solution, but already around 2016, the mobilization of employees made it possible to win a company restaurant, certainly with minimal investments for the employer, since it was designed for 460 daily meals while it serves more than 800 today, without additional development. Already at the time, colleagues insisted on defending their quality of life at work and the conviviality of their break time.
By planning to bring back more than 180 additional colleagues to this already saturated site this summer 2026, Management has generated a rare wave of discontent in this population mainly made up of engineers and researchers in IT and networks. This new forced densification is no longer happening.
94% of employees believe that the arrival of these 180 additional colleagues will essentially pose a problem to this already saturated company restaurant.

Result: On the theme “ Saturated canteen, pressured catering workers: this must stop! “the battle of collective catering” Orange Atalantais becoming a symbol. Symbol of what capitalist logic produces when it claims to optimize costs, densify spaces and put ever more pressure on workers. Also a symbol of what employees can build when they refuse to endure and organize collectively.
For months, alerts have been coming from the field. Saturation of the company restaurant, endless queues, deterioration of the working conditions of SODEXO catering employees, lack of seats, premises that have become unsuitable for the massive increase in staff on the site: the situation is explosive. Behind the managerial discourse on “reorchestration (!)” and “micro-zoning”, there is a very concrete reality which is imposed on Orange workers and subcontractor employees: ever more densification, always fewer resources.
Faced with this, staff did not wait for hypothetical benevolence from management. A collective mobilization was built, driven by Orange employees, trade unions and growing solidarity around catering workers. This lutte has taken a step forward with the petition “ Saturated canteen, pressured catering workers: this must stop! » demanding immediate investments for the restoration of Atalanta.
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The success of this petition is massive. 1,168 signatures had already been collected as of April 29, even though the counter continues to climb. More than a thousand employees affirming in black and white that they refuse the continued deterioration of their living and working conditions. This figure is far from insignificant. It testifies to deep anger but also to a collective desire to speak out again.
Employees rightly believe that beyond the simple provision of a catering service, the company restaurant is a place for creating social bonds between colleagues in a friendly setting. It is the place for informal discussions with colleagues, where we can possibly remake the world. This break time contributes to the quality of life at work. This makes collective catering a common good to defend, all the more essential as many collective structures are undermined with teleworking for example.

On April 29, this mobilization took shape in the Atalante hall. Sixty-seven colleagues gathered together and officially handed over the 1,168 signatures to the collective catering decision-makers. A highlight: Employees demanding accountability from those who decide without ever suffering the consequences of their decisions.

The demands are clear and legitimate.

First, emergency measures to immediately relieve congestion in the restaurant. The staff representatives are demanding in particular agreements with other restaurants in the Atalante zone in order to avoid all Orange employees being concentrated in a single saturated space.
Then, heavy investments to really adapt the infrastructure: expansion of the back kitchen, covering and heating of the exterior terrace, improvement of storage and production spaces, verification of ventilation and air renewal devices and work on the cold chain. Work that has been requested for a long time.
But the mobilization goes beyond the sole question of the comfort of the guests. Because behind the operation of the restaurant, there are above all the working conditions of the employees SODEXO. Here again, the observation is overwhelming. Independent expertise carried out by a consulting firm, Technologythe observations of the labor inspectorate as well as the work of the CSSCT have highlighted the pressures exerted on staff, the inadequacy of the workforce to real constraints and the psychosocial risks generated by this organization of work.
The report recalls something that is too often forgotten in subcontracting arrangements: The principal, Orange in this case, remains responsible for the social consequences of the functioning it imposes. Catering employees are not an adjustment variable intended to absorb the effects of a decided densification in the offices of the real estate and financial departments.

The management ofOrangeFor the moment, she continues to procrastinate. During the April 29 gathering, the president of the National Restoration Committee postponed the decisions to a presentation scheduled for the end of June. More time saved for decision-makers; more time wasted for workers. This strategy of waiting is classic: exhaust the mobilizations, let the anger subside, increase the number of meetings while the concrete conditions continue to deteriorate.

But this time, something seems different.

Because employees now have expertise, reports, reasoned opinions voted on in the CSE and even observations from the labor inspectorate which confirm the reality of the problems denounced for months. Because the mobilization succeeded in articulating the interests of guests and those of catering employees, refusing the usual division between users and workers. And above all because a collective conscience is being built around a simple idea: human needs must take precedence over accounting logic.

This local conflict also reveals a more general evolution of contemporary capitalism. In large technological or tertiary companies, we talk about “innovation”, ” flex office “, from “transformation”, but behind the modern words always hides the same logic of exploitation. We densify spaces, we reduce costs, we outsource the most difficult tasks and we then ask employees to adapt to conditions that have become untenable.

Atalante’s struggle then recalls a fundamental truth of combat unionism: nothing is won without a balance of power. These are neither the charters on Corporate Social Responsibility, nor the fine managerial speeches of “ Happiness Managers » which will improve working conditions, but the collective organization of the workers themselves.

And the rest is already on everyone’s minds.

On June 22 and 23, members of the National Restoration Committee must return to the Atalante site. The mobilized employees intend to take advantage of this deadline to maintain pressure and remind decision-makers that they cannot ignore the situation forever. The mobilization does not stop with the filing of a petition. It can now be sustained over time.

À Orange Atalanta as elsewhere, workers demonstrate that solidarity remains their best weapon. Faced with authoritarian management logic and the progressive breakdown of working conditions, they oppose mutual aid, self-organization and collective struggle.

And this, for employers as well as for company management, always remains the greatest threat.

Pierre, La Sociale, FA Rennes