Michelin employees in Cholet on strike against the closure of their factory

While the management of the French tire giant has announced the closure of two factories in Morbihan before 2026, employees of the Cholet factory are continuing their protest movement against this decision. A demonstration is planned for this Friday.

Michelin employees at the Cholet factory were mobilized all night. A strike which has lasted since Tuesday, November 5, after the group's announcement of a social plan involving the closure of two factories in the town of Maine-et-Loire, but also in Vannes in Morbihan. In total, 1,254 jobs are affected by this wave of layoffs.

“Michelin is a family, now we are destroying it,” regrets Éric Mariel, a 61-year-old employee affected by these measures, to BFMTV.

“It's been more than a year that no one has wanted to tell us anything (…) and overnight, in 10 minutes it's done. They really took us for dogs”, denounces Gregori for his part Garcia at our microphone.

Tire sales at half mast

The Michelin group justifies this “inevitable” social plan by the collapse of sales of tires for trucks and vans due to tough Asian competition but also the “deterioration of Europe's competitiveness”. In return, the latter promises to support employees towards other job offers within the group or externally but also in early retirement.

“There is no question of anyone ending up at France Travail when Michelin is a billionaire group,” defends Bastien You, CGT Michelin delegate, who describes these proposals as “lies”.

This Tuesday, Michel Barnier said he “disagreed” with the automobile group's decision and indicated that he had met its CEO Florent Menegaux “a few days ago”. At the same time, the Auchan group also announced the elimination of 2,400 jobs this Tuesday. Which pushed the Prime Minister to wonder what these groups did “with the public money that we gave them”.

On the subject of the famous research tax credit which amounts to 55 million euros for Michelin, the company's management entourage justified that “this credit made it possible to repatriate research and development activities from Japan and the United States in France, making the cost of a researcher in France competitive with Germany and other countries.”