French ‘Boss-Napping’ Workers Bring Plant-Closing Fight to US

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5131/french_boss-napping_workers_bring_plant-closing_fight_to_us/

Tuesday November 3 2:30 pm


Security staff of the US-owned car parts supplier Molex prevent employees from entering the plant in Villemur-sur-Tarn, southern France, in September 2009. (REMY GABALDA/AFP/Getty Images)

By David Moberg

French workers who “boss-napped” three managers last April to protest the closing of their American-owned factory tried to take their fight to corporate shareholders in the Chicago suburbs late last week.

But even though they had valid proxies, Molex officials kept them out of the stockholders’ meeting in Lisle, Ill., on Friday. Just the day before, customs officers at O’Hare airport detained and questioned them for more than four hours.

Molex, an electronics company, bought a French auto parts plant in Villemur, France, in 2004. The new U.S. owners took it through a rocky period that brought restructuring and layoffs but no new product lines before they announced in October 2008 that they would close the factory, eliminating 283 jobs.

The union—part of the leftist CGT federation—decided to fight, especially since managers had previously praised the profitability and product quality at Villemur. But Molex refused to open the company’s books, in violation of French law requiring consultation with the local works council in cases of plant closings or restructuring.

Workers, digging on their own, discovered company documents indicating that Molex was transferring molds and dies (or copies of them) from Villemur to the U.S. as part of a plan to shift production to China and Vietnam.

Shortly after that discovery on April 20, “workers got very angry and did the so-called ‘boss-napping’,” said Guy Pavin, secretary-general of the local union and part of the delegation to the shareholders’ meeting. They detained three managers overnight at the factory in protest over the failure to share crucial information.

FULL story at link.

[dcsmart]

1. K & R

[Laelth]

2. k&r for labor. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth