SEYNE-SUR-MER, FRANCE, April 19 — The 120 Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) workers won a victory of sorts today in their struggle for a separation bonus (see CHALLENGE, 4/28).
The workers were demanding a 15,000-euro separation bonus (a total of 1,800,000 euros — $2,250,000) and a fund to tide them over until unemployment benefits kick in.
On April 17, a majority of the workers’ general assembly voted to end the one-week sit-down strike and lift the threat to burn down the factory after the prefect in Toulon promised to free up 450,000 euros for job training and to speed up the payment of unemployment benefits. Those measures were finalized today at a round-table meeting with the trade unions.
This, of course, is far less than what the workers were demanding, but they would have got nothing if they had not taken militant action. Only organizing for communist revolution can get workers off the treadmill of fighting for — and accepting — crumbs from the bosses’ table.
[Correction — PIP is owned by the U.S. company Heritage Worldwide, Inc., not Falic Fashion Group, as previously reported. CHALLENGE regrets the error.] J