New Fabris Laid-Off Workers Threaten to Blow Up French Plant

by cyn.khoo | July 13, 2009 at 01:31 pm

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Laid-off employees of New Fabris car parts factory have threatened to blow up the New Fabris plant in Châtellerault, France, if the company does not meet their demands of a $41,000 pay-off per employee.

According to former worker Daniel Thébault, the disgruntled workers have already burned several machines and hung up gas canisters around the entire factory, to show they are prepared to follow through on their threats.

"We burned these machines here a couple of days ago as proof we're ready to go all the way," New Fabris employee Daniel Thébault told French news channel i-Télé as he motioned to several heaps of charred metal outside the main building. "We're not going to simply be discarded like worthless objects."

New Fabris has until July 31, 2009, to meet their demands, say the 336 workers who were laid off. Since the firm itself will not be able to meet the total $14 million pay-off, due to an April court order to liquidate, its former employees are asking that New Fabris' two largest clients, the makers of Renault and Peugeot cars, provide the demanded funds.

A delegation of New Fabris workers are to meet with French Industry Minister Christian Estrosi on July 20, asking the French government to pressure the firms involved to acquiesce to the workers' demands. This is not likely to happen, particularly in view of the fact that the New Fabris plant itself is worth no more than $2.8 million.

This event is the latest in a decades-long history of violent action staged or threatened by French workers in protest. French livestock farmers have burned trucks of live sheep from Britain and dumped large piles of manure in front of state buildings; grape growers in the south of France have engaged in "wine terrorism", and industrial workers in northern France contaminated a major river by pouring sulphuric acid into a drainage system after their plant closed.