Laid Off Auto Workers Threaten To Blow Up Factory
… in France of all places. Laid-off auto-parts workers huddled Thursday around gas canisters tied to an electrical cable, threatening to blow up a factory in the latest example of extreme French resistance to cost-cutting in the economic downturn. Some 200 workers at the New Fabris factory outside the southwest city of Chatellerault, are each demanding euro30,000 ($42,267) from Renault and PSA Peugeot-Citroen, accusing the carmakers of killing their livelihoods.
If they don’t get it by July 31, they say they will blow up the factory, about 190 miles (300 kilometers) southwest of Paris. They are taking turns guarding 20 canisters of acetylene and butane, once used for gas-operated tractors and now spaced out on both sides of the plant and attached by a cable.
Other French workers have kidnapped their bosses, blocked ports and barricaded factories to try to save jobs in France’s worst recession since the 1940s.
The factory’s more than 350 workers were fired last month. They are demanding Euros 30,000 ($41,000) each by the end of the month in compensation from the main clients, PSA and Renault, union officials say. Several car-related factories in the region are laying off workers — along with thousands of auto workers losing their jobs worldwide as the industry undergoes its worst slump in decades. Do they really expect to walk away with all those Euros and live happily ever after?
