5 days ago
‘We were treated like animals': Champagne workers reveal inhumane conditions
France's Champagne region conjures up visions of picturesque vineyards, rolling hills and church steeples, as well as grapes lovingly hand-picked by 120,000 seasonal workers.
Yet the idyllic image has taken a huge knock due to a court case brought by a group of 57 grape pickers – most of whom are African and without papers.
At a trial last week, they recounted the 'hellish' conditions endured at the hands of allegedly unscrupulous middlemen and a winemaker accused of turning a blind eye to 'modern slavery'.
' We were treated like animals in those vineyards. I'm still traumatised,' Kanouté Djakariayou, a 44-year-old migrant from Mali, told The Telegraph.
'It was inhuman, I'm still trying to forget,' added Diabira Bouhou, also from Mali.
They and their fellow complainants – from Mali, Mauritania, Ivory Coast and Senegal – were all bussed from Paris to the criminal court of Châlons-en-Champagne for the six-hour hearing, taking a similar route that brought them to the region in 2023, for what they were promised would be a well-paid job in decent conditions.
'We responded to offers on WhatsApp and TikTok to work in the vineyards for €80 per day, with the bus leaving from Porte de la Chapelle (northeastern Paris),' recalled Mr Djakariayou. 'They said we would be in comfortable housing, three or four to a room.'
They were told they would receive a bonus depending on the harvest, however the court heard they were never paid.
Due to the level of their alleged mistreatment, prosecutors requested two years behind bars for subcontractor Svetlana Yourevna Goumina, a Kyrgyz woman in her forties, on charges of human trafficking, exploiting seasonal workers, and housing them in appalling conditions.
'No food, no water, nothing'
Two defendants, Abdoulaye Camara and Témuri Muradian, who helped recruit the workers with false promises, face three-year prison terms, two suspended.
A fourth, Olivier Orban, head of a wine cooperative, faces a €200,000 fine for turning a blind eye to black market labour that helped him sell his harvest 20 per cent cheaper per kilo than normal.
'The victims…were promised a hotel, with six toilets for almost 60 people,' said the presiding judge.
But worker Modibo Sidibe said: 'They put us in an abandoned building with no food, no water, nothing. And then they took us to harvest the grapes from 5am to 6pm.'
The accommodation, a warehouse and a house under construction in the village of Nesle-le-Repons, contained ' worn and dirty sanitation facilities ', an outdoor kitchen, and living areas that were unprotected from the weather.
The dangerous state of the showers, with bare electrical cables sticking out, forced pickers who returned exhausted after backbreaking harvesting in scorching temperatures to use a bucket of water to wash off the grime.
'There were blown-up mattresses covered in dust strewn on the floor. The toilet was soon blocked and s--- poured out into the sleeping area. It was unbearable. There was no electricity, not even to charge our mobile phones,' said Mr Djakariayou.
Grape pickers said they had to make do with 'drinking water from the pipes', which made them ill, as did the defrosted sandwiches they were handed for lunch.
They were crammed into vans with no windows and taken to the vineyards.
'From the initial 80, around 30 threw in the towel and demanded to leave. But the rest of us stayed because they refused to pay us if we left, and I have debts and rent to pay,' Mr Djakariayou, who said he was granted a temporary work permit after his ordeal.
Lawyers have asked for €5,000 in damages per worker.
After a neighbour alerted the French police, investigators in September 2023 inspected the living conditions of the harvesters, according to prosecutor Annick Browne.
Following the inspection, regional authorities ordered the closure of the accommodation, citing 'unsanitary' and 'undignified' living conditions.
Disrespect for 'human dignity'
As well as human trafficking, Ms Goumina, manager of the subcontractor Anavim, was also accused of concealed labour, submitting vulnerable or dependent persons to undignified housing conditions, and employing foreign nationals without authorisation.
Maxime Cessieux, the lawyer of the victims, said before the trial that the defendants had shown 'total contempt' and disrespect for 'human dignity'.
'We cannot accept any champagne bottle concealing unregulated subcontracting and blatant mistreatment,' the prosecutor told the court.
Jose Blanco, general secretary of the CGT-Champagne trade union, which has been instrumental in bringing the case to court, said he hoped the July 21 verdict would result in tough sentences to set a precedent.
He pointed to another upcoming trial in November regarding the alleged mistreatment of 100 Ukrainian grape pickers crammed into an unsanitary building during the 2023 harvest.
In a historic first, the Champagne board, CIVC, filed as a civil plaintiff in this month's trial 'to express its firm opposition (...) and to have the serious damage to the image of the appellation recognised'.
Union demands worker protections
But Mr Blanco said his union wants it to go further.
It is calling for proper pay and housing for grape pickers to be added to the Champagne appellation's specifications, which grants assurance about how and where the drink was produced.
'Any producer who fails to do so will not be able to sell his grapes,' he said. 'That would create a huge financial disincentive.'
Clients – large Champagne houses, wine cooperatives or independent winegrowers – who use service providers for 'turnkey harvests' would then be considered 'jointly liable before the law'.
But CIVC has refused to go this far, saying it has already put in place extra checks and procedures to verify subcontractors.
As a result, Mr Blanco said, the wine producer in the dock was able to sell his grapes to the big champagne houses – he mentioned two in court, Montsard-Baillet and Moët-Chandon. 'They weren't on trial, but I think that the justice system could have looked into their role more deeply,' he said.
'Champagne must have impeccable ethics. But the first bottles made from those grapes of human misery will be on sale this year.'
