Social plans at Michelin, Auchan, Vencorex… Sophie Binet warns of a “violent industrial bloodletting” – Libération

In an interview with “La Tribune Dimanche”, the general secretary of the CGT returned to the recent announcements of social plans, predicting a “domino effect” and asking for guarantees to preserve jobs.

The announcements follow one another and are similar. In recent days, the tire manufacturer Michelin, the distributor Auchan, and the chemical factory Vencorex have all announced massive social plans. “We are at the beginning of a violent industrial bloodletting,” warned the general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet, in an interview with the Tribune Sunday. “It is estimated that more than 150,000 jobs will disappear, probably more,” according to the head of the union center, who predicts a “domino effect” on the subcontractors of “major contractors”.

According to Sophie Binet, the “bleeding” will hit “all sectors”, as the Minister of Industry feared on Saturday morning on France Inter. She is “due each time to the same strategy of these companies”, pushes the person in charge : “Always increase margins”, on the one hand, and “distribute ever more profits to shareholders”, on the other hand.

Layoffs “to finance the cost of capital”

The CGT has drawn up a list of social plans which “close to 200”. The head teacher requests a “real industrial policy” and requires that a “company cannot receive aid [de l’Etat, ndlr] if the opinion of the staff representatives is unfavorable.

The head of the union center focused on the case of Michelin. The French tire giant, which announced on November 5 the closure before 2026 of the Cholet and Vannes (Morbihan) sites, which have 1,254 employees, is doing so “to finance the cost of capital”, after “dividend payment records”. In the immediate future, the CGT is demanding a “moratorium to avoid layoffs, to avoid these tragedies and preserve our industrial tools, our qualifications”.