AMIENS, France – Workers at a dying French tire factory who’ve become the butt of American jokes are staging a day of last-ditch protests to try to save their jobs.
The protests Tuesday at the Goodyear plant in the northern city of Amiens come after efforts to find a new buyer for the struggling plant have fizzled. An American executive who considered buying it sent a letter last week to the French government saying that France’s economic model is too worker-friendly and discourages investment.
Union leader Mickael Wamen says Goodyear “wants to bring us down to the level of a Chinese worker who earns one euro and lives in misery.”
Industrial sites across France are struggling in Europe’s downturn. French unemployment is more than 10 per cent and rising.
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France is not a pro-business environment. Just look at the laws, not the unions. The unions are much more powerful in Ontario. When I worked for Magna, they refused to do business in France and closed or sold every factory acquired in an acquisition in France. Once you see the process you have to go through to close or move a factory, you realize why it’s tough to do business there. Not bashing the French workers, but it’s tough to compete with workers in places like Romania or Hungary when you can drive there from France. China is not the issue.