RP: How did you learn of the announcement of the layoff plan at Michelin, and what were your reactions, especially in the context of the company’s significant profits?
Romain Baciak : We started to hear noises on Thursday October 31, corridor discussions which made it clear that two factories were going to close. It was already talking about Vannes and Cholet. From that moment on, we contacted social relations for more information, but not a single word, not a single response until Monday morning when we felt that the smoke would soon come out. And Monday afternoon, management contacted the secretaries of the CSEs of Vannes and Cholet, plus the DSCs (central union delegates) and the secretary of the CSEC (central social and economic council), and sent a message to the employees in their saying that it was necessary to be present in the morning at 8:30 a.m. on both sites. There, we understood that the announcements were going to be made the next day. And then, on Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m., management announced the closure of two sites with 1,254 employees who will lose their jobs.
The first reaction of the employees following this was to blame the blow. Because when you announce a layoff, when you announce the closure of your business, it’s never easy. For some, they’ve been in the company for a long time, they’ve built their lives around it, they plan for the future by working there, and suddenly, everything collapses.
And then it’s anger, a lot of anger that comes out. Anger at Michelin’s lies, anger at having the impression of being thrown away like tissues after having worked and provided service to the company for years. For having allowed shareholders to enrich themselves, to make record profits, then to be treated like nothing.
In addition, Michelin tries to justify its closures by saying it needs to be more competitive in the face of a hostile market, but in reality, they are relocating to give even more money to its shareholders each year. Already, next year, they will share a billion in dividends, a billion out of 3.5 or 3.4 billion in profits. No turnover, eh? Profits! It’s a company that’s doing very well, but today, we’re cutting jobs just so shareholders can put more and more money into their pockets, and we’re sacrificing people and their families.
These are employees who sacrificed their lives and their health for Michelin, because the working conditions are difficult in these factories! These are 3x8s, heavy loads, etc.
And today, there is no need for them anymore, so Menegaux (president of Michelin) is kicking them out. He’s handsome, eh, the super social boss…
Because we’re talking about Michelin, 1,250 jobs, but with all the jobs generated on the side, that’s going to be times 4 or times 5. In the Cholet area, the 1,000 jobs on Michelin will mean 4,000 or 5,000 jobs on the side. . How are small bakeries, how are small businesses going to survive this? This is not possible. Today, big companies have a monopoly, they think only of their faces, they think of the money they will be able to make, they think only of the shareholders, and leave behind them thousands of people in the lurch .
RP: How did you come to the decision to go on strike? }
Romain Baciak : From Monday evening, on the Cholet site, employees wanted to get together to discuss how they were going to react to the closure announcement. The CGT proposed to hold a general hiring meeting at five a.m., but as management summoned all employees at 8:30 a.m. to make its announcement, the decision was taken to hold the general meeting after the speech. from the box. Then, during this meeting, the employees decided to vote on the strike and to renew it every day in AGM. Until today, they are still on strike. They also set up a big action on the Vannes site on Friday to raise awareness of the fight and put pressure on management.
These are really not methods: summoning employees in the morning like that and announcing the closure, when there was not even a CSE… Another scandalous thing is that the management of Cholet, and I I imagine it will be the same for Vannes, will give a bonus to each employee of €600 per month so that they come to work. So that means that, for one year, employees who will lose their jobs will receive a bonus of €600? Michelin makes us believe that it has no money to keep jobs and on the other hand it can give a bonus of €600 per month per employee for a year, it’s an aberration and the truth behind all that is that it is a bonus which is put in place to break strikes. It will depend on absenteeism and they count the strike days in that, so that means that not all the strikers will touch it, these are disgusting methods.
I am on the Clermont site and, for the moment, we are not threatened with closure. But we must not deceive ourselves, we know that one day or another, this could happen to us. And not all Michelin employees in France are safe from the fact that, sooner or later, this will happen to them and they will be closed. In 2019, they had already closed La Roche-sur-Yon with the same methods.
Today, it is Vannes and Cholet, but in the years to come or in the coming months, other Michelin factories in France will close, always to increase their profits! And here, we are only talking about France, but before, there were closures in the United States, Italy or Germany, Michelin is not going to stop there…
This is why, for us in Clermont, it was also important to support colleagues. This morning, with the union secretariat we decided to call an indefinite strike. Not all employees will be on unlimited strike every day, but they can choose to do so to organize their actions and block strategically.
Also, at the CGT, we called for action on Friday on the Clermont sites in front of the factory in an inter-union fashion. All the unions responded to our call and many employees joined the movement.
But we must not forget that in the Clermont sector, there is Auchan which has announced job cuts. So, if Auchan employees want to come join us and express their anger, they are welcome!
RP: Today, we are observing a wave of layoffs which affects not only Michelin but also other sectors such as mass distribution or the automobile industry. How do you situate your fight in relation to these other struggles?}
Romain Baciak : The rest of the battle will only take place if we have the employees with us. Today, we must not rely only on the unions, it’s not possible, we can’t, we don’t have enough weight for that. The employees of Cholet and even all the other employees of Michelin companies in France must fight to make the company understand that we do not agree with its policy and above all that they must keep these two open factories, which we will not give up on this.
If they no longer want to make tires in Cholet, employees can do lots of other things, make metal reinforcements, metal batteries, we can make everything, there are the skills for it. But we must fight to save these factories; This is part of a battle for jobs that is currently taking place.
We’ve been at almost 300,000 layoffs for two years, this year alone, we’re at almost 100,000. It’s still starting to produce big numbers, eh. We, at the CGT, see very clearly that if all the factories close, it is to make even more profitable.
The government leaves the door open for them, currently they open the doors wide on both sides: they shower them with public aid, supposedly to encourage hiring, and on the other side, they allow massive layoffs without anything say ! Today, Michelin receives a wealth of public aid, and they still close factories! And everywhere else, it’s the same, whether it’s Exxon, Vencorex or all the automotive companies!
It’s not normal to validate anti-social plans, I mean PSE or factory closures, when companies make billions in profits. A company like Exxon makes billions in profits every year, it will cut almost 900 or 800 jobs. How can we let this happen? Michelin makes 3.5 billion in profits, it will cut 1,250 jobs! And I’m not even going to talk about all the induced jobs that will be lost nearby.
All this is no longer possible, we must ban layoffs and factory closures!
And Mr. Barnier, he does like our boss: nice words, nice words: “I’m going to hold Michelin accountable, I’m going to hold Auchan accountable.” But behind it, nothing happens. He is quick when it comes to granting them social assistance, but to protect employment, only nonsense.
In 1980, there were approximately 50,000 employees at Michelin in France. Today, we will drop to 13,000 employees. So we lost 35,000 jobs in 40/45 years, in 44 years. Where are the funds granted to Michelin for hiring in all this? It’s not possible. And that’s only at Michelin; imagine yourself in the companies next door where it is even much worse.
Faced with this, we must bring together the different struggles, we are all fighting for the same questions, this is what will allow us to carry the anger of the employees and our demands. We, the CGT Michelin, went to support Vencorex’s fight in Grenoble, we will continue to fight on the Clermont site in support of Cholet and Vannes and we call on all employees of the companies in the Clermont sector to join us!
That’s the only way we’ll get out of this. If we stay on our own, unfortunately, it will be complicated, even more so for companies with few employees or places where unions are not strong. We support all the employees of Vannes and Cholet and all the employees who are going to lose their jobs or who have recently lost their jobs, and we call on everyone to join us in these struggles and in our actions!
