“A tidal wave” : unions and employers fear an acceleration of social plans in industry and distribution, due to the latest announcements of job cuts in the steel and automobile industries, at Michelin et Valeo notably. At the beginning of November, Auchan also announced a draft social plan threatening 2,389 jobs in France.
Faced with this situation, the general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet alerted this Wednesday, predicting a “very strong acceleration of the deterioration of the situation”. While she spoke at the beginning of November of nearly 200 social plans and 150,000 jobs threatened by a “violent industrial bloodletting”she now mentions “nearly 250 layoff plans in preparation, affecting between 170,000 and 200,000 jobs”in an interview in the newspaper Les Echos. The union also publishes a map which lists the jobs lost and currently threatened, based on its own census.
- The map of jobs eliminated or currently threatened, according to the CGT census
To approach your department, zoom in with your fingers or with the “+” or “-” signs at the bottom left of the map.
Towards “a wave of job destruction”?
This count, produced from feedback from activistsaugurs the dark months to come: “These plans take place mainly in large companies, restructuring risks having consequences on small subcontractors, who are much more numerous”warned Sophie Binet. Her CFDT counterpart Marylise Léon spoke on Tuesday “a wave of job destruction”estimating at “at least 23,000”the number of jobs affected for the month of November alone, on RTL.
Alexandre Saubot, president of France Industrie, concedes that “the environment is certainly more demanding and more difficult than a year ago, that’s clear”. However, the one who represents companies and professional organizations in the industrial sector believes that Sophie Binet is pushing the line a bit: “If we want to have an overall assessment of the industry, we also have to talk about the positive things, there are still projects that continue”he assured AFP.
“New jobs are being created in other sectors”, tempers the government
For the Minister of Labor, Agnès Panosyan-Bouvet, certain profound economic changes “are accelerating thanks to European regulations or the geopolitical context”. “The impacts are considerable. We must support our companies and workers in these changes”she told AFP this Wednesday. “There are the big companies whose restructuring is making headlines, but there are also all their subcontractors, their suppliers”she noted. “It is necessary to anticipate and prepare the skills we will need tomorrow”she judged.
Marc Ferracci, his colleague from Industry, explains that France is “in a transition phase: some jobs are destroyed, it’s true”he admitted, adding that“at the same time, we see that new jobs are being created in other sectors”some of which, like green industry, are “growing”. For the steel industry, he advocates an emergency European response and will present this Thursday in Brussels France's proposals to protect the European market and support decarbonization.
The fear of a fall of the government
The fall of Michel Barnier's government, threatened with censorship when using 49.3would cause a new shock likely to endanger businesses and employment, fears François Asselin, the president of the CPME. “If the government ever fails (…) we will find ourselves in the same situation as after the dissolution”he declared on RMC, with “weeks and weeks more” before a new government “take control of the budget”a situation “absolutely not desirable for businesses” who need “visibility”according to him. It would be “catastrophic”he assured, because “during this time, companies stop investing and hiring, and business failures increase”.
Alexandre Saubot, for his part, warns against a reduction in reductions in charges as envisaged by Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who “will result in an increase in labor costs in 2025”.
The CGT calls on “employees to go on strike and occupy their factories”
To oppose the social plans, the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, called this Wednesday “employees to go on strike and occupy their factories to prevent layoffs”as well as a day of mobilizations in front of factories and prefectures on December 12. “There is an extremely fatalistic discourse that is maintained”judged Sophie Binet, but “employee mobilization always changes the situation, there is never anything inevitable when it comes to employment”. “There is nothing worse than unemployment. Behind these figures, these 300 devastated territories, lives and families who are brought down by unemployment”she insisted.
The boss of the CGT also attacked the supply-side policy pursued since Emmanuel Macron's first five-year term, “a political shipwreck”according to her, which calls for “real general statements of the industry to put everything back on track”. “The entire industrial and economic program must be reviewed,” adds Cyril Chabanier, president of the CFTC to AFP, asking in particular “a moratorium on the aid that is distributed, the reimbursement of aid for businesses which close and which have been supplemented with public aid.”
