French motor industry industrial relations

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Mon 13 Jul 2009 17:08
French motor industry industrial relations - mike hannon
I thought Backroomers might be interested in this glimpse of the way industrial relations works in the French motor industry.
A few weeks ago, workers angry at being told their jobs were on the line were content with kidnapping and interning their bosses.
But now:

tinyurl.com/mthgr2

Going on past experience, the gendarmes are likely to stand back and decline to involve themselves.
What might have happened to Longbridge, etc, eh?
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Mon 13 Jul 2009 17:19
French motor industry industrial relations - datostar
The French national police are very much an arm of the State and the Gendarmerie is a straightforward paramilitary outfit. That has not yet quite happened here despite the efforts of the Government. If the State decides that things are out of hand and it is in their interest to stop it they are sent in very hard indeed, which includes deployment of the CRS. In practice, I think more disorder is tolerated there than here, given the history of the country, but when they do act, it's very decisive with plenty of tear gas and water cannons!
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Mon 13 Jul 2009 18:01
French motor industry industrial relations - redviper
Have i read is so that they are blowing up there own factory, therfore if they are facing redunacy the prospects of getting another job are bleak with the fact they threatened/ did blow up the factory on there record


If PSA and Renault now source there parts from eleswhere - what would they care if the factory blew up?
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Mon 13 Jul 2009 18:44
French motor industry industrial relations - Lud
They want compensation for being laid off and the factory closed down. They referred to workers at another parts supplier that they said had been given 30,000 euros. I imagine that is about a year's wages, perhaps a bit more?

They are holding some product and some valuable kit hostage from the car firms that are their true employers behind the scenes.

I can't claim special expertise in this area, but my impression, mh, is that things were very different in the days of BL. Industrial relations there, and in this country generally, were a true 'dialogue de sourds'. Our most militant unions were so obtuse that they were easily outmanoeuvred or bought off by equally obtuse managements, the product and customer being the main victims over many years of cynical idiocy and corruption.

In the end the unions so weakened themselves with this brainless stance that Mrs Thatcher simply demolished them 8< 8< 8< Luckily we don't discuss politics here so I snipped out the last bit. smokie, Moderator

Edited by smokie on 13/07/2009 at 18:46

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Mon 13 Jul 2009 19:47
French motor industry industrial relations - Lud
Thank you smokie. I'm sure it would have done nothing but harm.
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Tue 14 Jul 2009 10:55
French motor industry industrial relations - mike hannon
Yes, point taken. I was an NGA member (and official) once, and I saw exactly the same situation in the newspaper industry, pre-Thatcher. A dialogue of the deaf indeed.
I do feel some disquiet, though, about the way industrial anarchy in France appears to be condoned, in the motor industry and elsewhere, as a way of making the state do what is perceived to be its job.
Last year I had to drive through a burning barricade to get into the ferryport at Cherbourg, and that after the main road into the city had been blocked. There wasn't a gendarme in sight, anywhere.
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