Many people already know that such professions as couriers or taxi drivers have many problems. This work does not require special education, workers are easily replaceable, which means that from the point of view of the manager, the employee can be exploited to the maximum. This is exactly the same situation with tour guides in various cities of our planet. Nowadays, tour guides work not only in museums, but also in various private companies that conduct excursions on buses, organize interesting walking tours of little-known places or, for example, excursions on the roofs of old cities, or in recent years, bike tours have become popular. In this case, the tourist rents a bicycle and at the same time buys an excursion and the guide takes people to historical points. On average, the excursion takes 3 hours and during this time the tourist has time to get acquainted with the main and famous sights of the city. In 2024, a new company appeared that worked with the same mechanism – Orange Bikes.
In disputes with the liberal public, you can hear the argument that supporting business is good for the working class, since an entrepreneur, creating his own enterprise, thereby creates jobs. And in general, it is stupid to deny this. But, unfortunately, such a public does not look far ahead. According to the laws of business under capitalism, where, let me remind you, the main point is to maximize profits, if the enterprise itself does not grow, then it is necessary to remove the surplus. And as experience shows, in 90% of cases, these very costs are the people themselves. This is what happened in a young company of bicycle excursions of a citizen of Ukraine. Why I mentioned the citizenship of the founder and owner of the company – you will understand a little later.
Now I suggest moving to the Paris branch of Orange Bikes, where I had the chance to work. The office in Paris opened in May and consisted mainly of Russian-speaking employees. These were, naturally, citizens of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, there were also people with passports of Moldova and Kazakhstan. There were people there who had long been in exile, as well as those who left their countries due to the war in Ukraine and the growing dictatorship in the Russian Federation.
It is important to understand that such an organization includes not only the guides themselves. There are also people who are responsible for communication with tourists – administrators. And also people who perform technical maintenance of bicycles – mechanics. The work, of course, was never easy, since there are always a lot of tourists in a center like Paris. Very often, guides left with a group for a 3-hour excursion, and upon arrival were forced to immediately go on the next tour without rest.
Most often there are 3 tours per day, sometimes less, depending on the number of tourists. For each tour they paid: less than 5 tourists – 20 euros, up to 15 tourists – 30 euros, more than 15 tourists – 40 euros. And on normal days, with 3 shifts, 9 hours of work – it comes out to 90 euros. Plus tips from satisfied tourists. The situation with mechanics is somewhat different, since they have to arrive a little earlier to check the bikes and are forced to leave later to check and possibly repair the bikes. And for four mechanics there were 80 euros per day and without any tips.
The situation began to deteriorate at the end of the summer. Due to the decrease in the flow of tourists, some of the guides and two mechanics had to say „goodbye“. But the worst thing: by October, only one mechanic remained, who had to work literally every day without days off, 9-10 hours a day. In addition, everyone else had their rates lowered. The mechanic worked for 50 euros a day, and the guides, regardless of the number of people, for a 3-hour excursion – 20 euros. Since most of the staff was kept in the black, without employment contracts and without paying taxes for them, all such actions were carried out very simply.
On October 23, the team announced that they did not plan to work under such conditions. At first, the workers planned to come to an agreement with the management. The only demands were: to return the previous rates, hire a second mechanic and, for those of the workers who needed it, to sign an official employment contract with them. In response, the workforce received not only a harsh refusal and threats of dismissal, but also threats that the administrator would snitch, that the guides did not pay taxes on tips and that people would generally be on the verge of deportation to their countries. Who was this bluff aimed at? It is unclear, but the following days brought many surprises to the bosses of Orange Bikes. Literally a few days later, French television was at the office door, representatives from several left-wing parties and introduced the CGT, the largest French trade union. No one expected such publicity. The conditions remained the same and no one wanted to make contact.
In a classic example of such labor struggle, the bosses tried to negotiate with each worker individually in order to split the unity, and also hired a person to conduct excursions, whom they fired in the summer for professional incompetence.
On November 15, the strike took on its radical form. The workers, together with union activists, occupied the office, thereby completely paralyzing work. After such a radical step, the owners of Orange Bikes finally made some kind of contact and sent their representative in the form of a lawyer. For now, work in the Paris office is completely at a standstill, and people are there every evening and night.
Capitalism works in a very strange way. If the owners had made concessions to the workers, it would have cost several thousand euros. But now it is not enough to calculate the lost income, which according to rough estimates was more. Now it is possible that there will be a trial, in which, with the support of the CGT, the chances are on the workers‘ side.
This whole story once again proves one Marxist idea – capitalism has no nationalities, only classes. While in our countries there is a massacre between our citizens, here in emigration, the business owner and managers, who, as I remind you, are citizens of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, tried to profit at the expense of worsening the situation of workers from their own countries. And these same workers, despite the most severe contradictions of their states, united with each other to protect their rights.
Member of the French cell of the Union of the Post-Soviet Left
