In Champagne, workers enslaved during the grape harvest demand justice

Did they know, when they boarded that bus one day in September 2023, that the journey would lead them straight to court? On the benches of the courtroom in Châlons-en-Champagne , several dozen of them sit, their faces closed. They come from Senegal, Mauritania, Mali and went to the Marne for the grape harvest, driven by the promise of a daily wage of 80 euros as long as there were grapes to pick, and by the guarantee of a hotel room to rest after the days of labor. But these workers, some of them undocumented at the time, will never have seen the color of these counterparts. Worse, they would have been the victims of human trafficking . In any case, this is what the court tried to decide this Thursday, June 19.

Faced with the swarm of cameras filming the discreet exchanges they have with their lawyers, the defendants appear withdrawn, embarrassed to attract so much attention. The four people in the dock stare silently at the screen on which the presiding judge scrolls through the damning evidence of the mistreatment they allegedly inflicted on the convicts. The photos that follow show a dilapidated house in Nesle-le-Repons with dangerous electrical installations, where dozens of inflatable mattresses are piled on the floor in complete promiscuity. The handful of filthy toilets lead directly into the bedroom, and a plank precariously balanced on a pile of rubble serves as a kitchen.

The torture didn't stop at this shantytown. Without employment contracts, the 57 workers who filed a civil suit were herded into the back of vans every morning to work more than ten hours a day, with only a plate of rice in the evening and a "small frozen sandwich" for lunch. The majority of them simply didn't see a single cent, despite their hard work.

Discovered during a labor inspection on September 12, 2023, the few people present in the accommodation "were in a state of fatigue and obvious abandonment. Some complained of not having eaten for two days and of headaches," lists Lucien Masson, president of the court.

The manager of a wine company is the first to take the stand, representing his subcontracting company . Wearing a floral shirt, his casual appearance is at odds with the austere atmosphere of the trial. Judging by his initial answers to the court, he feels in no way responsible for the working and living conditions of the farm workers.

They were in fact recruited by the Anavim company and placed at its disposal, exonerating it, according to him, from any duty of vigilance. "Didn't you find it strange that they brought you 140 workers, even though you were talking about recruitment difficulties and only asking for 80 employees? All this at a very competitive rate?" asks Jean-Philippe Moreau, deputy prosecutor. "Everyone manages as they see fit," the subcontractor firmly replies. "You are a winegrower, would you offer rates of 45 cents per kilo picked?" insists the black robe, pointing out the excessively low sums he paid to Avanim for the exploited labor. "I have no rate to give you," persists the accused, to the disapproving sighs of the court.

Two Avanim employees, a Parisian hairdresser and a thirty-year-old Georgian, do not accept any responsibility either. Yet, they are accused of recruiting the hundred or so African workers, including a minor, in Paris, and of bussing them from Porte de la Chapelle (Paris's ^18th arrondissement) to the dilapidated house. Then, of forcing them to work in appalling conditions under pressure, even violence.

Both claim to have been duped by their employer. They even claim not to have received a cent from Avanim, despite their work and the advances on expenses, especially for the bus. Why didn't they leave Marne after realizing the supposed trap the Kyrgyz woman was setting for them? "We couldn't leave people like that. I never wanted to do that," laments the Georgian defendant. "I didn't think to call the emergency services," adds his French partner. Both claim they were just other workers, victims and driven by fear. It doesn't matter if the many contradictions in their stories weaken this mask of innocence.

The confessions will also not have come from the mouth of the Kyrgyz woman at the head of Avanim, and the true instigator of this system of human trafficking, according to the other accused. Although the dilapidated house is her property, she insists without batting an eyelid that she did not know that workers were living there, and goes so far as to refer to it as a squat in her custody interviews. It was indeed her service company that employed the 57 victims, but she maintains that she knew nothing about their living conditions.

As for water and food, "I gave Monsieur 1,000 euros to take care of it," she says, pointing to her Georgian employee. Employees without work permits and without prior declaration of employment? "They didn't work for me," she sobs . What does she have to say to all the civil parties who were eagerly awaiting her statements? "I'm sorry, but unfortunately, I wasn't aware. I should have been more attentive."

While the lengthy debates have shed a harsh light on the terrible system of service providers that crushes workers in the vineyards, some civil parties deplore the notable absentees from today's trial: the champagne houses . "We are asking that the principals also be judged," insists José Blanco, secretary of the CGT Champagne union. "We have been alerting the public authorities for years about the system that this cascade of service providers allows . What should be done is to include in the AOP the downgrading of harvests in the event of an offense of this kind," he proposes. The court's decision, which is under advisement, should be delivered in the coming weeks.