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15 December, 2005
The ICEM is fully supportive of French affiliates Filpac-CGT and FCE-CFDT, and the French paper workers, in their manifestation Saturday, 17 December, in Lille, France. The unions are protesting against the actions of several multinational paper companies, who are firing workers and closing mill and paper converters, or have plans to do so, in the Nord/Pas-de-Calais area of northern France.
According to Filpac-CGT, paper companies are creating “a genuine social earthquake” with job losses and closures in the region.
Paper companies Stora Enso of Sweden and Finland, International Paper of the US, Cascades of Canada and Smurfit-Kappa of Ireland and The Netherlands have all announced harmful restructurings in the Nord/Pas-de-Calais area. Over 1,000 jobs might be lost in total.
Companies are ignoring their social responsibilities and cite external causes, such as surplus capacity, the overall economic situation or global energy costs.
According to the unions, however, the real reasons lie elsewhere. Stora Enso is pursuing its Profit 2007 initiative aimed at adding another €300 million to its annual pre-tax profit in 2007. FCE-CFDT reminds us that Stora Enso, as part of this initiative, intends to get rid of 2,500 work places world-wide, with 500 of them in France, for the sole purpose of making more profit.
Cascades is equally seeking improved profitability of its boxboard unit, while pointing to capacity build-up in China and the pressures of Asian exports as the reason for the possible closure.
International Paper (IP) first refused to sell its Maresquel mill to a potential buyer earlier in the year and then gave local managers just two months to find investors, demonstrating that it is more interested in closing this operation than having to live with a potential competitor. Lastly, the closure of a paper converter in Gravelines, along with another converting plant in Cevennes, was announced by a Smurfit subsidiary immediately after the merger between Smurfit and Kappa Packaging.
The manifestation on 17 December begins at 9h00. For more information, visit Filpac-CGT’s website at http://www.filpac.cgt.fr or FCE-CFDT's site: http://www.fce.cfdt.fr/n1/2005/12/bra%5Fpacart%5F97.doc.