Business and Finance - Europe
In French Trend, Laidoff Workers Threaten To Bomb Plant Unless Pay Demands Are Met
By JOHN CARREYROU Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
CORMELLES-LE-ROYAL, France -- A sign etched in black marker at the entrance of household-appliance maker Moulinex SA's plant in this northeastern French town says it all: "Money or BOOM!"
It's no idle threat. For the past three days, the plant's workers, who were laid off in September when Moulinex filed for bankruptcy, have been threatening to blow the factory up if their demands for more severance pay aren't met.
On the roof of one of the plant's buildings, the workers have rigged a makeshift bomb: it consists of 12 drums of sulfuric acid and cylinders of acetylene, butane and oxygen. On Monday, they burned an annex building, gutting it as a warning that they mean business.
Call it labor terrorism. France has a long tradition of explosive social protest dating back to the French revolution, with street demonstrations and mass strikes a nearly weekly occurrence. But of late, blue-collar workers have been resorting to more drastic actions to air their complaints.
Threats of violence "are the only thing that makes management and politicians listen," says Antonio Thomas, a stocky 28-year veteran of the Cormelles factory. "It's our only weapon to put pressure on them."
Previous incidents range from taking executives hostage at bank Credit Foncier de France and aluminum company Pechiney to disgruntled brewery workers flooding the streets of a Strasbourg suburb with vats of beer. In July of last year, sacked workers from textiles company Cellatex dumped sulfuric acid in the Meuse river and threatened to detonate chemicals stored in their factory.
The incident at Moulinex marks an escalation of the trend. "For as long as I can remember, fired workers have picketed plants, burned tires and used various other forms of protest, but what's changed is that they've ratcheted up a notch the threats they're making," says Jean-Luc Buridans, chairman of Garon Bonvalot, a human-resources consultancy.
Demands for Bonus
Mr. Buridans says some unions are taking advantage of the fragile psychological climate in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the U.S. and the accidental explosion that left 29 dead in Toulouse, southwest France, in late September. "Some of these union guys are very aware that the use of these threats can have a dramatic effect at a time when public opinion is extremely sensitive to these things," he says.
The workers at the Cormelles factory, which assembles ovens and microwaves, got word that they were laid off on Sept. 11, the same day of the terrorist attacks. Within weeks, the company was auctioned off in bankruptcy court to rival white-goods maker Seb SA, which agreed to take on only part of the company's operations and to keep only 1,855 of 5,590 jobs. The Cormelles plant is one of those Seb doesn't want.
A week after being fired, the Cormelles workers decided to take control of their factory, ousting about 30 white-collar employees from the premises, including the plant's director. Since then, about 150 of the roughly 1,000 blue-collar workers who were employed at the plant have been returning to the site every day to voice their discontent. Their main demand is for a 12,200 euro ($10,747) bonus on top of the three months' pay and 6,100 euro to 10,700 euro severance check they are entitled to under French law.
Until this week, things remained under control. At lunchtime, the workers gathered to eat sandwiches and drink beer supplied by the town amid stacks of crates filled with oven parts. Union representatives kept them apprised of negotiations with the Ministry of Labor in Paris on an hourly basis. But the situation boiled over Monday when the government's negotiator failed to show up for scheduled talks with unions.
Since issuing their bomb threat, the workers have been unapologetic about using large-scale sabotage to achieve their ends, at the risk of turning French public opinion against them.
"The Moulinex workers aren't the terrorists," says Lionel Muller, one of the plant's union leaders. "The terrorists are the executives who fired us and who have a CAC-40 (France's stock index) in place of a heart."
Moulinex's former chief executive, Patrick Puy, who is now vice president at Seb, couldn't be reached for comment. A company spokesperson didn't return phone calls.
Getting Results
Another Cormelles union leader, Jean-Louis Jutan, says he has tried to tell his fellow workers that destroying the factory would be tantamount to shooting themselves in the foot because it would kill any chances of finding a buyer for it, but he adds with a shrug: "You can't control some of them."
The fact that France's Socialist-led government, in power since 1997, has often given in to this kind of labor blackmail has only fueled the phenomenon. It didn't take long for the government to cave in to the Moulinex workers' demands. Labor Minister Elisabeth Guigou agreed Tuesday to earmark state funds for a bonus payment. "These events are the sign of the exasperation and despair of employees -- feelings that are understandable," Mrs. Guigou said.
Her pledge did little to placate some employees. At another Moulinex plant in Alencon, workers Wednesday threw pricey appliance molds into the Sarthe river. The Alencon plant employed 1,100 workers; Seb plans on maintaining only 180 of the plant's jobs. And angry workers from a smaller Moulinex plant in Saint-Lo threw glue on the town's mayor.
Back in Cormelles-Le-Royal, workers told a visiting reporter that they were waiting to hear how much extra money they would get before backing down from their threat. Unions were still negotiating the size of the bonus with the government late Wednesday. In the parking lot in front of the factory's entrance, a bonfire of tires, desks, chairs and factory machines continued to burn.