More than 5 million small business workers called to the polls, but how many will go?

From Monday, November 25 until December 9, 4,6 million employees of very small businesses and 780.000 employees working for individuals will be able to vote in this complex election, which does not always attract the crowds in "traditional" businesses (local shops, construction, restaurants, etc.) or in "young innovative businesses" with fewer than 11 employees.

"Unions are to start-ups what the steam engine is to Elon Musk," jokes Olivier, 41, echoing this lack of enthusiasm. However, there is no shortage of issues, assures this computer engineer, a member of the CFDT, who remains anonymous.

As proof, the account "BalanceTaStart-up", followed by 236.000 people on Instagram, has long listed breaches of the labor code in some of these structures.

Under an introductory message that says "table football is cool, but labor law is even better," an employee anonymously denounced, in July 2023, the behavior of a manager who "sends messages very early in the morning, very late in the evening, sometimes in the middle of the night."

But will these employees vote for a union in these elections in which only 5,44% of the electorate participated in 2021?

"Unions have very few entry points into the start-up world" and the executives who populate them come from "business schools, engineering schools, where they have not experienced unionization", regrets Thomas Aonzo, in charge of independent workers at the CFDT.

"It is a scattered mass" which when it experiences a conflict at work tends "to turn to the industrial tribunal" and not to elected officials. However, "it is not because you are in a company of less than 11 people that you have no rights and no possibility of action", insists the unionist.

The demonstration is not so obvious for Inès (not her real name), 26, a former development manager in a production company, who will vote "if (she) thinks about it". When there is a conflict, "we cannot remain anonymous and if we speak out, we risk having a bad reputation and not finding a job because in my field, everyone knows each other".

Balance of power

Beyond the vote on the list for representatives, the result of these elections will also contribute to establishing, from April, the representativeness of each union organization for four years in the branches, at the national level.

This will also result in the distribution of seats in the Regional Interprofessional Joint Commissions (CPRI) - responsible for local social dialogue - and in the industrial tribunals.

The stakes are high. Will Solidaires and the Unsa, which enjoyed high scores in certain sectors (home help and early childhood, respectively) in the last election, be representative this time? Will the new Yellow Vests union, authorized in extremis by the Court of Cassation to run in a ruling issued on Thursday, find its electorate? Will the CGT still be first in the VSE sector?

On the ground, the number one of the CGT, Sophie Binet, has travelled all over the place in recent months from Paris to Toulouse via Orléans, to convince. In Loiret, in October, the union leader tried to mobilise by recalling the progress made recently such as the signing of "two agreements to combat sexist and sexual violence" for intermittent workers - often employees of very small businesses - and "the increase in overtime" for home helps and childminders.

Even the employers' organisation U2P, which represents "employers in the craft, local trade and liberal professions", got involved in this vote by calling, in a press release, for "the highest possible turnout".

Verdict on December 19.