150,000 jobs in danger? The government promises to support threatened employees… to France Travail

The alert is launched. “More than 150,000 jobs will disappear, probably more”warned Sophie Binet at the end of last week, both during a trip to Isère on Thursday in support of Vencorex employees threatened with the elimination of 425 positions out of the current 450, then in the Tribune Sunday. If this observation was corroborated this weekend by the Ministers of Economy, Industry and Labor, they remain faithful to the outdated side of the conservative Barnier government by making one of the most memorable mottos of the Shadoks their own. , pop culture hero under Pompidou: “By continually trying, we eventually succeed. So: the more it fails, the more chance we have that it will work. »

The general secretary of the CGT, who presented a map of France of the 180 layoff plans in progress or feared, threatening more than 100,000 direct and indirect jobs, mainly in industry, notes that new red dots have appeared there. added at high speed. The 1,254 job cuts announced last week by Michelin at its sites in Vannes (Morbihan) and Cholet (Maine-et-Loire) corroborate the dire forecasts of the CGT, during the World Cup. auto, of a social breakdown in progress in the sector. With three social plans in quick succession at Casino, Cora then, Tuesday November 5, at Auchan, mass distribution has joined the club of sectors that are massively poaching since the start of the school year.

“All sectors are impacted”

Just like chemistry, for which the employers' federation fears the loss of “15,000 jobs” in three years, or 8% of the sector. “All sectors are impacted”warns Sophie Binet, using the example of the CCF, formerly HSBC France, in support, which plans to eliminate a third of its workforce (around 1,000 jobs). “In recent weeks, the social catastrophe is accelerating because there is a domino effect throughout the subcontracting chain. (…) We are at the start of a violent industrial bloodletting…”

The government does not deny this. “There will probably be announcements of site closures in the coming weeks and months”recognized on France Inter, Saturday, Marc Ferracci, for whom the social report “will be counted in thousands of jobs”. The day before, during his visit to Michelin Cholet, the Minister of Industry was booed by the striking employees after having promised them not to do everything to make Bibendum reverse its decision to close its two factories in Great West, but “lots of resources” to support employees towards France Travail.

“Our strategy obviously consists of protecting what already exists, that is to say, trying to avoid social plans and site closures as much as possible, but also creating the conditions for new jobs to be created. and so that new investments come to our territory”he then corrected himself.

Is Europe and China to blame?

Also weak-willed, the Minister of the Economy Antoine Armand put on his most learned air to blame China and thus send the social hot potato back to the European Union. “We are in an extraordinarily demanding international situation with the cost of raw materials, the question of energy, aggressive commercial practices from many countries and therefore we must not be at all naive, we must we are extremely firm and extremely demanding vis-à-vis the other continental plates which create instability and create fragility”explained, extremely convinced, the tenant of Bercy on the sidelines of the Made in France show, Saturday.

Because France does everything well. Faith of Minister of Labor. “These fragilities require us to pursue a supply-side policy which has given good results: overall fiscal stability, support in the face of economic changes, a firm European response to increased and sometimes unfair competition from Chinese or Indian competitors, reduction of constraints linked to the overtransposition of European texts »assures Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet… in the Sunday newspaper.

On the contrary, Sophie Binet sued “a moratorium on layoffs” pour “allow employees, public authorities, local authorities, management to find alternatives, buyers, to reconvert activities…”. In view of the threats to the Solvay factories in Salindres (Gard, 68 jobs threatened out of 98) or Vencorex (Isère), Serge Allègre, general secretary of the CGT chemistry, added another proposal on Thursday: “175 billion euros are generously distributed each year to companies without compensation. The least of these would be to require companies to maintain employment. »