A trial in France has shone a light on the modern slavery conditions faced by undocumented migrant workers in the heart of France’s champagne country. The BBC reports three people stand accused of exploiting seasonal workers through a fraudulent employment scheme that promised good jobs and instead delivered “human misery.”
No papers = no rights
The workers bringing the case against the accused were recruited via a WhatsApp group message for the West African Soninke ethnic community living in Paris. The post promised them “well-paid work” in the Champagne region. On arrival, the 48 men and nine women instead were thrown into living conditions not even fit for animals. No clean water, only rotten food, and the living and eating areas were outside completely unprotected from the elements. In addition, the toilets were filthy, and the only showers were inadequate with intermittent hot water.
One of the workers, Doumbia Mamadou, 45, told a local newspaper:
“What we lived through there was truly terrible. We were traumatized by the experience. And we have had no psychological support, because when you have no papers, you have no rights either.”
The ringleader appears to be a woman from Kyrgyzstan with support from two associates, a man from Georgia and a Frenchman. Together they forced the migrants to work ten-hour days with just 30 minutes for lunch. They also provided no written contracts, and the prosecution said the nominal pay they received bore “no relation to the work performed,”.
“Total disregard for human dignity”
In addition to the charge of human trafficking, the ringleader is also accused of undeclared labor, employing foreigners without permits, inadequate pay, and lodging vulnerable people in unfit conditions.
Another worker involved in the case, Kanouitié Djakariayou, told a local newspaper:
“They shouted at us in Russian and crammed us into this broken-down house, with mattresses on the floor. I never thought the people who made champagne would put us up in a place which even animals would not accept.”
Tellingly this isn’t the first time the sparkling celebratory beverage has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Six grape pickers died from suspected heat stroke during the harvest in 2023. Further, there have been at least two other recent criminal cases. In both cases bad actors were found guilty of the same types of exploitation and abuse of pickers.
When labor exploitation bubbles up, what’s to celebrate?
Champagne is close to a 7 billion USD industry. This case underlines questions already raised about the extent of worker exploitation that poisons it. Every grape must be gently picked by hand. That requires approx. 120,000 seasonal workers for each annual harvest. Many of those workers are recruited through employment agencies. And in an all-too-common labor exploitation tactic, labor unions say champagne houses are using hiring agencies as a shield. Hiding behind them to shift the blame whenever labor exploitation accusations surface.
Jose Blanco of the CGT union said:
“It should not be possible to harvest the grapes of champagne using human misery.”
Sadly, with producers prioritizing profits over the basic rights and dignity of their workers, right now it is all too possible. And corporate greed will continue to fuel exploitation in the champagne industry without systemic change. Stand with us and demand that people are always put before profit by pushing for mandatory human rights due diligence laws everywhere. Together we can help remove the modern slavery stain on the legacy of France’s iconic bubbly. That would be something worth celebrating!
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