Amiens (AFP)

"It's a fight for human dignity": the lawyer of 800 ex-employees of the Goodyear factory in Amiens-Nord fought four hours during Tuesday before the industrial tribunal, once again contesting the economic motive of the redundancies in 2014.

"This audience was awaited by thousands of employees in France, (...) emblematic of the refusal of workers to let themselves be crushed during the dismantling of their work tool, while simultaneously, their employer makes colossal profits! ", launched Mr. Fiodor Rilov, lawyer for the ex-employees of Goodyear, in the auditorium of the convention center of Amiens (Somme) where the hearing had been relocated.

Between 500 and 600 people, mainly ex-Goodyears, some of whom wore CGT vests, came to attend the so-called "tiebreaker" hearing, chaired by a professional magistrate. During the first, in October 2018, the four industrial tribunal advisers, representing employees and employers equally, had failed to decide.

Gathered from 8:00 a.m. on the parking lot, the ex-employees were quickly joined by those from the Cargill factory in Haubourdin (North), where a social plan is being prepared, agents from the Lille hospital center as well as the deputies of the Sum François Ruffin and Seine-Saint-Denis Eric Coquerel (LFI).

Specializing in the manufacture of agricultural tires, their factory had closed in January 2014, after a standoff of more than six years between staff and management, causing the loss of 1,143 jobs.

The 832 ex-employees are claiming compensation mainly on the grounds that "their dismissal would be without real and serious cause" but also "for the damage suffered as a result of the employer's failure to provide work".

"The factory is now razed, closed for six years! What we have experienced has been incredible violence, rare", but today's meeting is "historic", launched them the former CGT leader of the site Mickaël Wamen, shortly before the hearing.

- Dismantling in stages -

Replaying with emphasis his pleading of 2018, Me Rilov pressed on the profits at the time at the level of the American group Goodyear, to which belonged Goodyear Dunlop Tires France (DGTF).

"The notion of safeguarding competitiveness", invoked by Goodyear to close, "supposes an objective threat", but in its accounts for 2014, the group "does not mention any underperformance whatsoever!", the lawyer got carried away.

While operating profit "stood at $ 1.7 billion in 2014", the after-tax net profit of the American group "reached 2.5 billion dollars", figures "record". Goodyear was able to pay "75 million euros in dividends" to shareholders, he said.

Me Rilov also quoted a document from the management at the time, referring to the Amiens factory: "Thanks to this closure action, we will improve our operating profit in the Europe zone by up to $ 75 million. per year".

He returned to the "highlights" of the history of the factory, judging that the closure had been "prepared" in 2007 with in particular the announcements of reorganization of the site and a drop in production. "Goodyear has never stopped (...) proceeding step by step with the dismantling of the factory" with a view to "transferring its activity to sites located in Germany and Poland", even though "justice had required that the restructuring be suspended, "he criticized.

Between 2007 and 2013, employees thus witnessed "the decrease in the volume of tires" they manufactured, going from some "25,000 in 2007-2008" to "1,500 in 2013", and until the majority of 'between them "hardly have any more work on their station", he pleaded.

After a suspension of the hearing, the pleadings of management lawyers are expected in the afternoon. In 2018, they had argued about the difficulties since 2007 of the "extremely deficit" factory, aggravated by the "severe crisis" of 2009, and the group's net debt of $ 5.267 billion at the time of the closure.

© 2020 AFP