At French appliance company
Militant action wins severance pay
By G. Dunkel
The big sign hanging on the Moulinex plant in
Cormelles-le-Royal, France, summed it up: "Money or boom."
Moulinex, a midsize maker of small appliances in France,
went bankrupt in early September. The German firm SEB bought
the company, located in a small town in France's northern "rust
belt." SEB decided to move most of its production out of
France.
Workers demanded a severance bonus. Some 50 to 100 workers,
according to a union spokesperson, put "acid, acetylene, gas
and petrol at strategic points so that they can blow the place
if we don't get the money we are asking for."
After occupying their plants for three months, holding the
government's negotiator hostage, burning down an unused
warehouse and threatening to "blow the place," the 4,400
workers at Moulinex finally won their demand.
Those with over 25 years seniority--more than two-thirds of
the workforce--will get a bonus of about $17,000, as well as
the normal layoff and unemployment benefits.
Five of the six union confederations involved in the
struggle signed off on the agreement on Nov. 21. The sixth
confederation, the CFDT, is expected to sign soon.
The workers have dismantled their protest occupation and the
new owners are preparing to move the machinery.
What makes the bosses listen?
Some officials of the CFDT had urged the workers not to
destroy the factory, saying that would destroy any chance of
finding a buyer who might restore their jobs. But the workers
didn't agree.
Antonio Thomas, a 28-year veteran of the Cormelles factory,
told the Wall Street Journal that threats of violence "are the
only thing that makes management and politicians listen. It's
our only weapon to put pressure on them."
Another worker, who gave her name as Patricia, told
Libération, "September 11, that's dramatic; the fall of
the Airbus in New York, that's dramatic; but us losing our
jobs, that's dramatic, too."
The past few years in France, workers have resorted to bold
tactics in their struggles with management.
Facing cutbacks, bank workers at Credit Foncier and aluminum
workers at Pechiney kidnapped management executives. Brewery
workers in Alsace-Loraine in eastern France flooded the streets
with beer. Textile workers dumped sulfuric acid and threatened
to detonate chemicals stored in their factory.
France does not have a Bill of Rights. It has
"anti-terrorist" laws that are in many respects more severe
than similar laws in the United States. But the state in France
couldn't charge the Moulinex workers and their unions with
terrorist acts because the French working class regards what
they did as valid tactics in the class struggle.
Reprinted from the Dec. 6, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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