The situation in the collapsing French parts industry is turning explosive—literally. Workers at bankrupt French car parts maker New Fabris threaten to blow up their factory if they do not receive money from Renault and Peugeot, Reuters reports. The workers are occupying the New Fabris factory at Chatellerault, near Poitiers in central France.
Their ultimatum: Renault and PSA had better pay €30,000 ($41,800) to each of the 336 laid-off workers at the factory, a total of around €10 million. If they pay, they get the remaining stock of parts and the tooling. If not . . .
“The bottles of gas have already been placed at various parts of the factory and are connected with each other,” CGT trades union official Guy Eyermann told France Info radio. “If Renault and PSA refuse to give us that money, the factory could blow up before the end of the month.”
A delegation of the workers will meet Renault on Thursday. The police have no comment.
The company had been acquired by ZEN of Italy which is headed by Florindo Garro. ZEN makes cast iron parts for vehicles. Garro controls other metal firms in France such as Rencast and SBFM. They also have financial difficulties. The industry is in a bust-boom cycle: The treat of blowing up the factory comes after holding managers hostage have received Gallic shrugs and are not even mentioned in the media anymore.
The scene from Blazing Saddles where the Sheriff holds himself hostage springs to mind here.
Pathetic. Can’t wait to hear this behavior justified and defended.
I’m pretty sure the French have some guys handy in Corsica (or Djibouti) who could make quick work of this situation.
According to Rush Limpblow, and his ilk, the French are a bunch of “cheese eating surrender monkeys”. Looks like those “surrender monkeys” have got 100 times the balls of your average American tube zombie.
Compare and contrast:
The French — They lose there jobs, and they react by taking their bosses hostage, and blowing up the factory.
Americans — They lose their jobs, houses, cars, see their investments and 401K’s wiped out by a bunch of klepto-capitalists, who continue sucking up million dollar bonuses, paid for with tax money. Americans react to the above provocations by doing…….NOTHING.
Vive la France!
According to Rush Limpblow, and his ilk, the French are a bunch of “cheese eating surrender monkeys”.
Actually, I think Groundskeeper Willie (from the Simpsons) coined that phrase.
Looks like those “surrender monkeys” have got 100 times the balls of your average American tube zombie.
Oh come on, everybody knows we all have flat screen TVs now.
“They lose there jobs, and they react by taking their bosses hostage, and blowing up the factory.”
Very smart those Frenchies. Arson and kidnapping, that should get you 25 years. And, of course, the factory where they used to work will be gone.
Americans — They lose their jobs, houses, cars, see their investments and 401K’s wiped out by a bunch of klepto-capitalists, who continue sucking up million dollar bonuses, paid for with tax money. Americans react to the above provocations by doing…….NOTHING.
Americans – After engaging in a decade-long orgy of credit card abuse, asinine speculation on real estate, and “retail therapy”, the American greed economy finally collapses in on itself. Stunned at the fact that their perpetual motion machine has failed, Americans react to their largely self-inflicted misery by electing a tax-and-spend liberal to the presidency and blaming the disaster on “those douchebags on Wall Street”.
I believe Napoleon was fond of using artillery on unruly members of the unwashed masses…. so at least they’ve got a precedent to work with.
that teaches the auto industry not to mess with pissed off Algerian and Moroccan part workers….
gees these guys seem to have ripped out a page of the french revolution and take their acquired heritage to heart.
“Americans – After engaging in a decade-long orgy of credit card abuse, asinine speculation on real estate, and “retail therapy”, the American greed economy finally collapses in on itself. Stunned at the fact that their perpetual motion machine has failed, Americans react to their largely self-inflicted misery by electing a tax-and-spend liberal to the presidency and blaming the disaster on /those douchebags on Wall Street’.”
Americans were told by their president to go shopping in response to the 9/11 attacks. They were told by the economic “experts” on cable news that all was well with the economy and that they should not pay attention to those who forecast doom and gloom. They were sold stupid mortgages that made no sense except to the mortgage bundlers who could sell these mortgages as secure investment to unwary investors. They watched countless shows on how to become rich by flipping houses.
It is true that people made foolish choices, but let us admit that there is more to the story than individuals simply acting irrationally. And about electing a tax-and-spend liberal, at least he knew that the economy was in the tank. McCain sealed his fate when he argued that the economy was still sound. Voting for tax-and-spend liberals might be rational when the alternative does not see that there is a problem.
The problem is not that people were irrational–they were–but that they listened to experts who told them to do irrational things.
skor:
Americans react to the above provocations by doing…….NOTHING.
American union workers are generally law abiding. In the US, extortion like this would do nothing more than speed the movement of manufacturing to right to work states.
I love the B&B. All the comments above reflect a healthy criticism of ways both French and American. As a frenchman living in the U.S, I’m appalled by those methods, and will be even more if those employees are not prosecuted. I understand losing a job is tough, but is it a reason to break the law in such a potentially explosive fashion?
Is The Joker French?
-or just in on this in some odd Bilderberger-trilateral-Templar-kinda way?
@kowsnofskia:Just Shush!; and read this: http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2007/11/19/Blaine-Lourd-Profile
And watch this: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-15-2009/clusterf–k-to-the-poor-house—puppy-me-
—
++btw, striking is about the only thing the French (esp. the civil servants) are good at when it comes to tactical mobilization of people.
hrm, … now if they’d just put Ze Germans in charge of the factories, the strikes would be over before they start…
Okayyy-yuh, Okayyy-yuh! -Weee Suhrendairrr, musshhooor Piyecccchhhhh!!!
Watch what happens when FIAT torpedoes a few plants here. We haven’t seen action like this since the Caterpillar strike years ago.
We should have given 100,000 auto workers 100K to start over again. Would have been cheaper than dumping 100 billion down the drain.
There are certain things I love about French culture, such as their refusal to overlook the simple pleasures in life such as food and conversation, to the importance that they still put upon high forms of art. That being said, I’d never thought of them as a particularly aggressive or violent people, but that little voice inside of me that loves chaos and madness just goes crazy for their recent propensity for blowing shit up. Way to go France.
NulloModo +1 [but did you miss the revolution 220 years back? It was in all the papers].
sitting@home + 1000000
“The thing that gets to me is why Americans hate the French so much when they only did us good and never did us any harm. Like, why not hate the Brits? They’re the ones who killed thousands of Americans in the Revolution, and thirty years later they came back and attacked us again. That time around they managed to burn Washington DC to the ground while they were at it. How come you web jerks never mention that?”
The French by Gary Brecher (aka The War Nerd)
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7061&IBLOCK_ID=35
It’s no accident that “sabotage” sounds French, you know.
Americans – After engaging in a decade-long orgy of credit card abuse, asinine speculation on real estate, and “retail therapy”, the American greed economy finally collapses in on itself. Stunned at the fact that their perpetual motion machine has failed, Americans react to their largely self-inflicted misery by electing a tax-and-spend liberal to the presidency and blaming the disaster on “those douchebags on Wall Street”.
LOL, so true.
I believe Napoleon was fond of using artillery on unruly members of the unwashed masses…. so at least they’ve got a precedent to work with.
Le petit Corsican, a great man.
It’s no accident that “sabotage” sounds French, you know.
“Sabotage” doesn’t just sound French, it is French.
Sabot = Shoe. During labor disputes in the 19th century, disgruntled French workers would throw their wooden shoes into the gears of the machinery causing it to break, hence, “Sabotage.”
Sounds like not much has changed in a couple hundred years…
I’m with the French workers. Vive le sabotage.
As an accompanying measure, I would also recommend a public flogging via TV (new business idea?) of those asshats in the upper ranks of “big” companies for not paying their bills, or not paying them in due time. They should fear their asses off.
skor hit the nail on the head. The French apparently have more balls than Americans. And reading most of the comments to his statements of truth just reinforces the fact.
It’s no accident that “sabotage” sounds French, you know.
“Sabotage” doesn’t just sound French, it is French.
Sabot = Shoe. During labor disputes in the 19th century, disgruntled French workers would throw their wooden shoes into the gears of the machinery causing it to break, hence, “Sabotage.”
Sounds like not much has changed in a couple hundred years…
I know all that (although it’s arguably not correct etymologically). I studied syndicalism back in the day. I just didn’t want to spell it all out.
bluecon: +1
I thought that the European approach to the economy was supposed to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the first place.
I guess not.
As for people asking, “Why don’t American workers do this?” – I’m sure that many American auto executives would say the same thing.
They could let the workers burn down the factory, then break all of their contracts, and source parts from more competitive manufacturers (or just reduce their supplier base).
I thought that the European approach to the economy was supposed to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the first place.
Actually, the Neo-Marxism popular among the Euro Elite eggs this rabble on.
Sabot = Shoe. During labor disputes in the 19th century, disgruntled French workers would throw their wooden shoes into the gears of the machinery causing it to break, hence, “Sabotage.”
Someone’s been watching Star Trek 6…
What to do huh?! Exploding gas canisters, supply interruptions, miserable workers. Mmm. Well, there’s about €2M in parts and about the same in tooling, then the cost of the plant itself (low market value whilst auto demand is bottomed out right now). A bit of rounding and damage assessment about the unsatisfactory nature of controlling exploding gas canisters, say damage of less than €5M.
366 workers asking for €30K a piece, a smidge of bank and accountancy fees makes €11M. Then factor in entertainment value.
My quick reckoning says let ’em push the plunger.