In mid-2002, the town of Soissons has seen considerable mobilisation of the area's employees and inhabitants after the announcement of 650 redundancies, following many job losses over the past few years. The authorities and local politicians have floated a plan for economic restructuring and redeploying employees.
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In mid-2002, the town of Soissons has seen considerable mobilisation of the area's employees and inhabitants after the announcement of 650 redundancies, following many job losses over the past few years. The authorities and local politicians have floated a plan for economic restructuring and redeploying employees.
The town of Soissons, with 50,000 inhabitants, and its surrounding area (in the Aisne département of northern France) have lost numerous industrial jobs in recent times. There have been various plant and company closures in the region, including that of Wolber, a subsidiary of Michelin, which shut down in 2000, with the loss of 450 jobs. Of the 450 redundant workers, 350 are still seeking employment. In mid-2002, a new wave of closures will cost a further 650 jobs, with four companies now in the process of closing.
Akerlund & Rausing Carton (AR Carton) is a Swedish-based firm specialising in printing for packaging products for mass consumption. Its plant in the suburbs of Soissons employs 200 people and the premises were modernised in 2001, with state subsidies. AR Carton recently lost the contract with detergent manufacturer Procter & Gamble, which accounted for 70% of the orders supplied from the Soissons site. The Finnish pension fund Capmam, which holds 50% of the shares in AR Carton, is said to have demanded that the company be brought back into profitability by relocating its industrial plants to Russia and the Baltic states, and the Soissons plant is to close. AR Carton staff were informed about their imminent redundancies and the plant closure by fax. The lawyer who took Michelin to court in the Wolber case on behalf of the General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT) wants to bring this case before the Swedish courts.
Another company closing down is BSL Industries, which makes precision boilers for the chemicals and nuclear industries. The firm once had up to 1,200 employees, but now only 305 remain. After fitting out most of the French nuclear power stations (with stainless steel-coating for cooling baths and condensers etc), BSL has been repeatedly bought and resold since the end of the French nuclear programme, and in 1998 its management mounted an employee buy-out. However, working capital was scarce, foreign customers were time-consuming and difficult to obtain, and the company's traditional client, Areva (a merger of French public operators in the nuclear energy industry) was slow to pay its bills, and this spelt the end for BSL.
BSL's closure has also brought down its subsidiary, Berthier, with a 75-strong staff. Lastly, a neighbouring firm, the Pecquet-Tesson boiler-maker is to make redundant 64 employees. Its shareholders, who took over the company in 2001, allegedly embezzled funds. Despite the company's EU 18 million order book, it is set to go into liquidation.
In early summer 2002, mainly at the behest of CGT, employees of the various companies launched 'operation Soissons ghost town' (Soissons ville morte), using roadblocks made of burnt tyres on the outskirts of the town. Traders, in solidarity with them, closed down their shops, and the town hall followed suit. Local politicians and the authorities have been called on to take action. Mayor Edith Errasti (a right-wing politician not affiliated to any of the major parties) and local parliamentarian Jacques Desallangre, a supporter of Jean-Pierre Chevènement, are backing the workers' action. However, locally, the National Front (Front national, FN) did well in the recent presidential election. Jean-Marie Le Pen received 24.95% of the vote in Soissons in the second round of the presidential election on 5 May 2002 (and his vote was as high as 38% in some districts).
The junior minister for small and medium-sized enterprises in the new conservative government, Renaud Dutreil, a deputy for the Aisne département, has announced a three-point plan for Soisson:
measures to enable the older redundant workers, from 54 onwards, to retire thanks to various schemes;
a worker redeployment fund, 50% of which would be funded by the state and the other half by the relevant local authorities; and
a fund to create 500 jobs in the Soissons employment catchment area, in partnership with local politicians.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2002), Anti-redundancy mobilisation in Soissons, article.
