A fight reminiscent of that of a baker from Besançon to regularize his apprentice. Patricia Hyvernet, also a baker in La Chapelle-du-Châtelard in Ain, started a hunger strike a week ago. One way of warning about the situation of 20-year-old Yaya, who works in her bakery and is threatened with eviction.
The young man arrived four years ago from Guinea-Conakry, with a few words of French for all baggage. In France, he went to school, followed several trainings, discovered a vocation: “I imagine that one day I would have the right to be legally in this bakery, to work and to become a good baker”.
But, in an irregular situation, the young man was ordered to leave the country in 2018. Since then, the couple of craftsmen for whom he works have struggled to obtain documents for him, with the hope of making him an employee. “He explained to us and proved that he is willing to work with us at night, that he understands the meaning of our work. It is with him that we want to continue our journey”, says Patricia Hyvernet.
But at the end of the administrative procedures, the latter chose a radical path a week ago: no longer to feed. “Today, because I don’t know what to do anymore, I started this hunger strike. I won’t give up”, she warns. A month ago, a Guinean apprentice also obtained his papers after the hunger strike of his apprentice master in Besançon (Doubs). As for Yaya, the Ain prefecture has announced that it wants to review the case as soon as possible, due to the promise of employment made by his bosses.
