Goodyear’s workers have filed a lawsuit against the company’s plans to close a plant in Amiens (France), reports Bloomberg. Mickael Wamen, a plant worker and Central Works Council, a workers body, filed a case in state court in Akron, Ohio (US) on 10 April stating the decision violates the country’s labour law. “The laws of France are designed to protect its workers from employers disregarding the impact of their decisions that disrupt the lives of their employees without consulting the proper representatives of their employees,” according to a copy of the complaint obtained from the plaintiffs’ lawyer.
Significance: Workers and Council have stated that the company failed to inform them about planned closure on time and the decision to relocate the plant. They also alleged that their wages have been hurt amid the company’s actions to cut production at the plant. The workers are protesting against Goodyear’s decision to move consumer tire production from the facility and demanding USD4m in damages for more than 1,100 employees. “The company doesn’t comment on pending litigation,” said Keith Price for Goodyear.
Goodyear has been witnessing a sharp decline in the European car tire market and announced the Amiens plant closure five-years ago when workers declined to accept any layoffs, according to an Associated Press report. The workers claim that the company now intends to move the production to China. However, Goodyear has said that the kind of tires the Amiens plant make are specifically designed for the European market and no longer in demand.
The protest by workers was triggered after the company started scouting for potential buyers. In March this year, The CGT union put forward a proposal for a worker cooperative at the plant that had been threatened with closure, according to an earlier report in La Tribune. Representative of the CGT Mickael Wamen told the newspaper then that the strategy would allow for the continuation of agricultural equipment tires at the site, while passenger car tire production would also continue for another two years. The deal would also be accompanied by a departure plan for some of the 1,175 workers at the site. The CGT union had previously put obstructions in the path of the future of the Amiens site as a going concern when it failed to reach an agreement with US agricultural tire manufacturer Titan International last year on voluntary cuts.
