Workers picked Tuesday December 6, as a day for action, demanding improvements in three key areas: higher wages, improved conditions and morale in the workplace and maintaining quality social security and protection heading into retirement (CCSS and SPME).

The Union des syndicats de Monaco (USM) told Monaco Life that more than 1500 demonstrators were expected at three designated locations Tuesday afternoon: at the entrance of CHPG’s maternity ward at 1:30 pm, at Stade Louis II in Fontvieille at 1:45 pm, and in front of St Charles Church in Monte Carlo at 2 pm (pictures above show hospitality workers, chefs and bank employees marching near St Charles yesterday).

The last strike in the Principality, and the first “interprofessional” collective strike since 2012, was on June 16, 2016, when the USM mobilised Monaco’s trade unions with a call to action from employees and retirees.

“Those taking to the streets are not anti-Monaco nor or anti-constitutional,” USM’s General Secretary, Christophe Glasser, told Monaco Life in June. “Quite the contrary. It’s a question of dignity and social justice.”

According to Glasser, who has worked at USM for seven years, USM is a foundation that represents 39 professional unions in the Principality, from transport and telecoms to hotels and restaurants to bank managers and water and electricity. Monaco’s constitution provides the right to strike and workers do not have to give advance notice to their employers, but, as in France, they do not get paid when they are on strike.