France: Goodyear, Gov’t Gang-up: Workers Occupy Plant, Seize Bosses

AMIENS, January 14 — Facing the mass layoff of all 1,173 workers, over 200 invaded the Goodyear tire plant here on January 6 and held two senior bosses captive in an attempt to force negotiations for huge severance pay before the closing of the plant. They rolled giant farm-tractor wheels in to block the room holding the bosses. The enraged workers then set off a huge bonfire of tires at the plant and vowed to occupy it until demands were met. They are occupying the factory and blocking a warehouse containing 240,000 tires worth hundreds of millions of euros.
On the second day of the standoff cops freed the two bosses, threatening the workers with hordes of police from Paris to “whack the workers” and jail them under a law prescribing a 5-year prison term and a $102,000 fine for each worker. Last March, a protest by these workers left 15 cops injured.
There is no clearer example of the use of the state by the capitalist class to enforce the exploitation of the working class.
François Hollande, the Socialist president of France, “pushed through…labor laws…making it easier for companies to fire workers, [and] reduce their pay and work hours” while introducing $27 billion worth of tax breaks for businesses….The imminent closing of the Goodyear plant [is] the latest in a series of mass layoffs at large companies across France….For the nine months ended September 30, Goodyear had net income of $372 million” (New York Times, 1/8).
Demand $130 Million Severance Pay
The workers are demanding severance packages of $110,000 each plus $2,500 for each year worked. “It will take years for these workers to find new jobs, and the older ones will have almost no chance,” declared a French economics professor (NYT).
The workers’ main union, the CGT, which supported Hollande in the last election, has fallen to the “strategy” of looking for a new capitalist buyer to bail out the President. Throughout the year since the plant closure was announced, Goodyear ignored legal proceedings on workers’ hygiene, safety and working conditions, while accusing the workers of “vandalism” and “theft.” Of course, throughout the years it is Goodyear bosses who have stolen billions in profits from the workers’ labor. It is notable that Goodyear is a U.S.-based transnational company and that when it’s in their class interests, the bosses and their governments act together to screw the workers. Workers must show support and solidarity across borders in order to fight the bosses at the point of production.
The militancy of the workers is to be lauded, but unfortunately — as can be seen from the adjoining workers’ proclamation — under capitalism conditions are stacked against the working class. The bosses use both the former right-wing government of Sarkozy and the current Socialist government of Hollande to oppress our class, which creates everything of value in society and yet the profit system enables the bosses to steal the value of what we produce.
It is only a communist revolution that can end this horror, not the mis-leadership of unions like the CGT nor the phonies who call themselves “communist” while betraying the workers in one bosses’ election after another. This requires a communist party — which still needs to be built in France — to turn the anger and militancy of the working class to lead to the overthrow of capitalism and establish a society run by and for the workers.