France: social plans are multiplying, unions are back
The demonstration against job cuts and for salary increases this Thursday, September 17 in Paris.
REUTERS / Gonzalo Fuentes
Text by: RFI Follow
8 min
In France, the return to the union has opened with several processions which marched this Thursday in Paris, Marseille, Nantes, Rennes or Bordeaux at the call of the CGT, Solidaires and the FSU.
The unions denounce, among other things, job cuts which have multiplied in recent weeks.
Since March, the number of jobs lost has tripled compared to the same period in 2019.
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Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, the labor market has been in the red.
No sector is spared: from the Alinéa furnishing brand to Nokia, BFM TV / RMC or even Auchan, companies are laying off workers.
The latest, the Japanese tire manufacturer
Bridgestone,
which is due to close its site in northern France in 2021.
►
To listen and read also: The closure of Bridgestone, a new signal of the decline of the French industry
Since March, 394 job protection plans have been identified, against 249 over the same period last year.
And this despite the aid plans decided by the government.
In total, this could represent 715,000 jobs destroyed at the end of the first semester marked by two months of strict confinement.
For Olivier Augustin, assembly worker at Renault, the problem is above all the race for profit ...
Listen to the report in the Parisian demonstration.
David Baché
This wave of layoffs causes incomprehension among employees and local elected officials.
The government is raising its tone.
Prime Minister Jean Castex invites companies to sign long-term partial activity agreements by November 1.
The aim is to prevent an explosion in unemployment, which should reach 9.5% of the working population by the end of the year.
►
Also to listen: Closure of Bridgestone: "For each job lost, you create three yellow vests"
French exports drop by 100 billion euros in 2020
Because of the health crisis, French exports of goods will contract by 100 billion euros this year compared to last year.
This is what is estimated in a study by Euler Hermès.
According to the French credit insurance company, French exporters will especially suffer from the economic recession in the European Union.
First of all, it is the chemicals sector that will bear the brunt of this drop in demand.
And who says chemistry, it is of course the industrial apparatus, the productive apparatus which means that the demand addressed to France is lower.
Selin Ozyurt, economist in charge of France at Euler Hermes
Altin Lazaj
♦ Bridgestone: distance match between Le Pen and Bertrand
Bridgestone promises to "
do everything
" to minimize the social consequences of the closure of its site in Bethune, in the north of France.
A “
revolting
”
closure
, according to the Ministry of the Economy Bruno Lemaire.
Since the announcement of this decision, which concerns 869 jobs, the entire French political class is indignant.
Some opposition figures have even moved, including Xavier Bertrand and
Marine Le Pen
.
Not insignificant with the approach of the regional ones.
The meeting took place at the town hall of Bruay-La-Buissière, a small town in the mining basin that fell into the hands of the National Rally last June.
On the one hand, Marine Le Pen, on the other, representatives of the 869 employees of the Bethune plant located just a few kilometers away.
No statement to the press for the president of the RN who plays the discretion but denounces in a press release a government incapable of countering deindustrialisation and occupies, casually, the social ground in a region that the party would like to win next March.
24 hours earlier, it is precisely the outgoing president of Hauts-de-France candidate for his re-election who went, under the watchful eye of the cameras this time, on the site.
Xavier Bertrand angry with the management of Bridgestone: "
liar
", "
cynical
", but for the moment at the side of the government to try to push back the Japanese company.
"
Not sure that the political declarations are enough, it will take action
", whispers a good connoisseur of French political life marked by attempts to rescues widely publicized industrial sites - Florange, Goodyear -, attempts that have not prevented their closure.
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