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15 July, 2005ICEM News Release No. 53/1999
Michelin, the world's No. 2 rubber company, last week announced a 20 percent growth in net income during the first half of this year.
In the same breath, the French-based tyre giant said it was going to fire 7,500 of the workers who produced this outstanding result.
Cartoon: Thierry Lenoir/ICEM
The news caused widespread outrage in France, including within the government. But it is unlikely that the French government's views will prevail over those of the multinational.
Michelin's attitude is "scandalous" and "a provocation," say French chemical and allied workers' federation Fédéchimie CGTFO - part of the Force Ouvrière union confederation - and the FO unions within Michelin.
"Michelin shares went up by 12.5 percent," Fédéchimie CGTFO points out. This will have increased the already more than ample wealth of the Michelin family, which "owns 30 percent of this stock." To achieve this boost to share value, "Michelin is cutting 7,500 jobs in Europe."
"This is the true face of ultracapitalism, Michelin-style," Fédéchimie CGTFO says. "The Michelins' fortune comes from the sweat of the brow of workers who labour in appalling conditions for poverty wages."
At the global level, Fédéchimie CGTFO is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). The French union says it will work with the ICEM and with the European chemical and allied workers' federation EMCEF to "defeat this umpteenth restructuring plan, which goes way beyond the previous ones."