The conditions for grape pickers in the French champagne business lie at the heart of a trafficking trial open to the eastern city of Rymes.
Three Georgia-born Kyrgyzstani women and Frenchmen have been accused of exploiting more than 50 seasonal workers, mainly from West Africa.
Workers – all undocumented immigrants – lived in a sloppy, unsanitary condition in the building of Nezurlelepon, southwest of Reis in the heart of the Champagne Country during the September 2023 harvest.
They were adopted through WhatsApp Group Messages for the Sonyke ethnic community in West Africa living in Paris.
They were adopted through WhatsApp Group Messages for the Sonyke ethnic community in West Africa living in Paris.
Between the ages of 16 and 65 at the time, 48 men and nine women came from Mali, Mauritania, Ivory Coast and Senegal. Many people attended Thursday’s trial.
“They screamed at us in Russian, put their mattresses on the floor and stuffed us into this broken house,” 44-year-old Kanouitié Djakariayou told the La Croix newspaper.
“There was no clean water and the only food was rice and a bowl of rotten sandwiches.
“We didn’t expect people who made champagne to put us in a place that wouldn’t accept us.”
“It was really bad that we lived there. We were hurt by experience. And we had no psychological support, because when you don’t have a paper, you have no rights either.”
A week later, a labor inspector, turned over by a local resident, visited the scene and recorded the condition “a serious violation of the resident’s safety, health and dignity.”
Prosecutors say the living and eating area was outside and not protected from the elements. The toilet was filthy. The shower was insufficient with only intermittent hot water. And electricity was a safety hazard.
Additionally, the migrants worked 10 hours a day, and were only 30 minutes long after lunch, and were taken to a vineyard squatting behind the truck. They had no written contracts and the salaries they received were bored, saying, “they had no connection to the work carried out.”
“The accused had completely ignored human dignity,” said Maxim Seschew, representing some of the immigrants.
The 44-year-old female suspect, named Svetlana G., ran a recruitment agency called Anavim, dedicated to finding the wine industry workforce. The other two were her companions.
In addition to the trafficking charges, women are also accused of employing foreigners without permission, inadequate wages and employing vulnerable people in inappropriate circumstances. All three will be sentenced to a maximum of seven years of prison and a massive fine if convicted.
The incident raises questions about the scope of workers’ exploitation in the 6 billion euro (£5.1 billion) champagne industry. Because all grapes must be chosen by hand, producers rely on around 120,000 seasonal workers each fall, many of which are adopted through agents.
In 2023, six grape pickers died of suspected heat stroke during harvesting in the Champagne and Bojo Rai area. In recent years, there have been two other criminal cases in which agents committed the abuse of immigrant Bendan Jour.
The union says that some champagne homes are hiding behind intermediaries, and they want to ensure that even indirectly they can lose the “champagne” label if the law changes and that producers are found to be using illegal labor.
“It is impossible to harvest champagne grapes using human misery,” said Jose Blanco of CGT Union.
However, the body representing the champagne producer, Comité Shampagne, said that workers’ abuse was very rare and stopped immediately when they were discovered.
This commit is expressed in court as a civil plaintiff, acknowledging the “damages caused to the brand” by these “unacceptable practices.”
