European Labour Unrest Spreads to Saint-Gobain, Glass Sector

Labour unrest by French, Spanish, Italian, and other workers at French MNC Saint-Gobain continued last week, with the heaviest coming in France. This follows a European-wide manifestation at Saint-Gobain’s head office in Paris on 20 May, which occurred during Saint-Gobain’s social dialogue meetings.

European trade unions at Saint-Gobain, a glass and building materials manufacturer, are protesting further restructuring, which to them means job loss and social dumping. The resulting industrial actions inside Saint-Gobain factories attest to collective rejection of both.

Strikes inside a factory in the Charente region of France have crimped production and interrupted orders. Workers feel cheated because “efficiency bonuses” have not been paid as promised, at a time when Saint-Gobain is coming for another round of restructuring. Protests have spread to Vauxrot and Châlon-sur-Saône in France in a show of visible frustration and worker rebellion.

In Spain, at Sekurit worksites in Avilés and Arbós, local managers are skittish following a furnace accident and blame the French corporate group for mandating further the social cuts that nobody wants. Spanish unions point to management ineptitude on the part of both local and Paris levels, and worry that research and development in Avilés might be in jeopardy.

In Italy, unions in all three federations – FILCEM-CGIL, FEMCA-CISL, and ILCEM-UIL – jointly manifested at Saint-Gobain’s regional office in Milan, while jointly conducting timely four-hour work stoppages at Italian plants. They reject the company’s decision to close a Sekurit plant in Savigliano, northern Italy, cut in half the number of staff at another Cuneo region plant, this time in Cervas, a glass-to-appliance factory, and workers at the Flovetro plant in Chieti, central Italy, have serious concerns over continued production.

Nationally in France, similar to union convergence in Italy, the CFDT, CGT, and FO have teamed to pressure the Saint-Gobain Works Council to look first at workers’ interests. That happened again last week, on 26 May, and the bond between French unions has gotten stronger, providing the needed pressure point on both Saint-Gobain and the WC.

In Liverdun, along the French Moselle, the mayor of that city recently stricken by Saint-Gobain’s factory cuts said it strikes fear in him each time he thinks of the difficulties that the discarded workers of Saint-Gobain now must face.