Latest news with #ChâlonsenChampagne
Times
19-06-2025
- Times
Champagne ‘harvest of shame treated workers like slaves'
At least 14 champagne houses used grapes picked by illegal immigrants deprived of food, housed in insalubrious conditions and treated like slaves, a court has heard. One of the pickers said that even animals enjoyed better conditions. The claims aired at a trial which revealed what critics claim are the sordid secrets of the eastern French region that produces the world's most famous sparkling wine. Behind the glamorous image of champagne lies a widespread reality of exploitation and misery, unions said, as they held a protest outside the criminal court in Châlons-en-Champagne. The court heard the cases of the manager and two deputies at an agency that employed pickers and supplied grapes to firms in the Champagne region. They are accused of human trafficking in connection with 57 African migrants and face up to seven years in prison if found guilty. A French firm that used the agency's services and which itself supplied grapes to champagne houses was also on trial for having recourse to unauthorised workers. The 'harvest of shame', as it has been called, was revealed in 2023 when work inspectors were called to a shed that was housing dozens of grape pickers. Almost all were illegal immigrants from west Africa, living in makeshift camps in Paris, when they were recruited by the Anavim agency with a promise of earning €250 a week, the court heard. In practice none earned that amount and many were not paid anything at all. They were forced to sleep between ten and 15 to a room, using inflatable mattresses on gravel-covered ground. There were no showers and three toilets for them, which were blocked when inspectors arrived. They worked from 6am to 8pm, received little water and only two meals a day — sandwiches — and were so hungry that some ate the grapes off the vines or potatoes found in neighbouring fields for sustenance, the court heard. When they complained, foremen threatened them with knives and tear gas. Djakaniyaou Kanoute, 44, said: 'I never thought that the people who make champagne would house us in a place where animals would not feel good. Everything was dirty. We couldn't wash and when we wanted to cook rice, we had to start a fire with wood because there was not even a camping stove.' Doumbia Mamadou, 45, from the Ivory Coast, said: 'We were badly treated, we didn't eat. We couldn't say anything. In short, we were treated like slaves.' In an interview with L'Est Éclair, the regional newspaper, he said: 'We still haven't received a single cent for all the work we did. What we experienced was really horrible. Frankly, it traumatised us. Now we want justice.' The court heard that illustrious champagne houses used subcontractors to provide grapes from the region's vineyards. The subcontractors in turn used agencies like Anavim which offered cut-price picking services. A representative of Cerseuillat de la Gravelle, the subcontractor, told the court it picked grapes for local vineyard owners but also for merchants and champagne houses. He said 14 champagne houses were among its clients. Cerseuillat de la Gravelle is on trial as a legal entity, but not its directors or employees as individual defendants. It denies wrongdoing. Svetlana Goumina, 44, from Kyrgyzstan, the manager of Anavim, said she did not know which champagne houses had used grapes picked by the migrants she employed. Goumina denies the charge of human trafficking, as do the two co-defendants. Prosecutors said that Anavim sold grapes for €0.45 per kilo to Cerseuillat de la Gravelle, which sold them on for up to €0.60 per kilo. The standard market price in the region in 2023 was €6.35 per kilo. Maître Maxime Cessieux, a lawyer for the migrant workers, said they had been treated with 'total scorn for human dignity'. He called on champagne houses to stop 'pretending they did not know' of the conditions inflicted on pickers. The trial continues. It was scheduled to end late on Thursday.
The Guardian
19-06-2025
- The Guardian
Employees at firm that supplied grape-pickers for champagne on trial for human trafficking
Three employees of a firm that provided workers to pick grapes for champagne has gone on trial for human trafficking, in one of the biggest labour scandals to hit France's exclusive sparkling wine industry. The employees of the firm supplying grape pickers for the champagne harvest in 2023 were charged with human trafficking and exploiting seasonal workers, submitting vulnerable people to undignified housing conditions, and employing foreign nationals without authorisation The firm itself was also on trial for moral responsibility in the case. The case, being heard at the criminal court of Châlons-en-Champagne in north-east France, has become known in France as 'the grape harvest of shame'. A police investigation found that a total of 57 men and women, mostly from west African countries and many of them undocumented, were allegedly held in fetid housing. They were allegedly forced to work in conditions likened to slavery while hand-picking grapes in Champagne's picturesque vineyards, in a region recognised as a Unesco world heritage site. The case came to light when residents in the small village of Nesle-le-Repons called police to complain about noise and activity in a derelict house during the September 2023 grape harvest. A labour inspectorate found what it said in a report were 'disgusting' and 'dilapidated' living conditions at the house. Grape-pickers were allegedly forced to sleep on what they described as stinking inflatable mattresses in a house without proper flooring, walls or windows, amid dangerous electrical wiring and rusty bed frames. There was no adequate water supply, washing facilities or sanitation and only three blocked and unusable toilets. The workers, from countries including Mali, Mauritania, Ivory Coast and Senegal, were allegedly given too little food – either rice or sandwiches that were rotting. They were said to be transported to vineyards crammed into the back of vans, standing up, with no seats or windows. Some told investigators they worked for 10 hours with only a 30-minute break and were threatened if they wanted to rest or drink water. They are believed to have been hired from areas in northern Paris where refugees and undocumented people often sleep rough or in tents and were driven to the Champagne region with the promise of work. The state prosecutor said the housing in the Champagne area included 'worn and dirty sanitation facilities', outdoor kitchen and living areas that were unprotected from the weather, and bedding strewn on the floor. Two of the former workers told local French media that they still cried when thinking about the conditions they experienced. Maxime Cessieux, a lawyer for the workers, said the accused had 'a total contempt' and disrespect for 'human dignity'. A lawyer for one of the accused employees told the Nouvel Obs he had only been involved in initial recruitment, and had had nothing to do with housing or work conditions. The CGT trade union said there must be an end to exploitation of seasonal workers in vineyards. In a sign that the case was being taken seriously by the industry, the Champagne Committee, which represents 16,200 winemakers, 130 cooperatives and 370 champagne houses, took part in the trial as a civil party – a first for legal proceedings concerning the living conditions of seasonal workers. The committee is 'firmly opposed to these unacceptable practices', its director, Charles Goemaere, said in a statement in March. A wine cooperative in the Marne was also on trial for moral responsibility in using illegal labour. Every year, about 120,000 seasonal workers are brought into the Champagne region to handpick grapes grown across 34,000 hectares (84,000 acres) and used to make the sparkling alcoholic drink. But the plight of seasonal workers has sometimes cast a shadow over champagne's reputation. In 2023, four grape-pickers died, believed to have suffered sunstroke after working in scorching heat. During the 2018 champagne harvest, dozens of workers, including many from Afghanistan, were discovered housed in fetid conditions. Two members of a firm providing labour to the wine industry were found guilty of human trafficking and given prison sentences. David Desgranges, vice-president of the Consortium Contre l'Esclavage Moderne (Committee Against Modern Slavery), told Agence France-Presse: 'The public should be made aware of the extent of human trafficking in the agricultural sector, and producers should know that they may face legal action.'
