Moulinex employees set fire to factory building

Nov. 13 — Disgruntled employees of the bankrupt kitchen appliance maker Moulinex set fire to a factory building in northwest France in a protest for financial compensation.

Black and white smoke could be seen escaping from a small annex building at the microwave factory at Cormelles-Le-Royal in Normandy, which is one of several due to be closed as part of a take-over plan by Moulinex’s rival SEB.

Earlier the 1,000 employees threatened to blow up the factory. “We have placed sulfuric acid, acetylene, gas, and petrol at strategic points of the factory,” said one employee who did not wish to be named.

Three fire trucks dispatched to the scene were blocked from entering the factory grounds. A regional government official was attempting to negotiate with the employees so they would allow the fire trucks to pass.

On the roof of the factory an AFP correspondent saw more than a dozen tins and gas canisters. “We are also ready to blow up a ton of acetylene, which has been placed on the (factory) machines,” the employee said.

A firefighter said the fire was far enough away from where the employees said they had placed the dangerous materials, so there should be no risk of an explosion.

“Money or Boom” read a sign on the factory which employees have occupied since early September when Moulinex-Brandt declared bankruptcy.

The takeover plan would only save the small appliances division and 3,600 out of 8,800 jobs within Moulinex. Among the divisions to be liquidated are those that make microwave ovens, deep-fat fryers and vacuum cleaners.

Negotiations on compensation between unions, management and the government were suspended early Monday when the government representative did not show up at a meeting, another employee said.

The unions are demanding compensation of 12,200 euros (80,000 French francs, 10,900 dollars) for each employee from the government, in addition to the regular compensation they would receive for being laid off.

In July 2000, workers furious at being laid off from a bankrupt synthetic fiber plant in northern France poured sulfuric acid into a river tributary of the Meuse, and also threatened to blow up their factory.

The entire Moulinex-Brandt group employs 21,000 people worldwide, of which 12,000 are at the Brandt division. It has interests in 11 countries from China to Brazil.

Source: Agence France Presse

Brazilian VW workers strike

Sao Bernardo Do Campo, Brazil, Nov. 12— All 16,000 workers at German automaker Volkswagen AG’s biggest factory in Brazil have gone on strike in a protest over job cuts.

The strike began on Monday after weekend talks to reverse 3,000 job cuts ended without agreement.

With a show of hands, workers voted to strike for an indefinite period at a meeting in the Anchieta factory complex in Sao Bernardo do Campo, the Brazilian car capital 13 miles from Sao Paulo.

They also gave the ABC Metalworkers Union the green light to negotiate directly with VW headquarters in Germany after failing to break the stalemate with the Brazilian unit’s president, Herbert Demel.

During the strike, market leader VW will lose production of 850 to 900 cars per day, mostly Brazil’s best-selling compact model, the Gol, according to local VW management, which declined to comment on either the beginning of the strike or the negotiations.

The collective dismissal of 11 percent of VW’s 26,800-strong work force in Brazil takes effect on Monday after workers received job termination letters last week.

VW management said it was the “only solution” after the ABC Union refused to accept a 15 percent cut in wages and working hours last Tuesday.

The job cuts come as high interest rates and a slowing economy have undermined demand for cars. According to Brazil’s auto industry association, car sales dipped 15 percent in October from a year earlier, while production fell 13 percent.

VW is Brazil’s largest automaker with 27 percent of the market, but Italy’s Fiat is right on its heels at 26 percent.

One of management’s arguments is that wages are high in the Sao Paulo car industry compared to other states, like Minas Gerais, where Fiat has its main factory, or Parana, the site of VW’s newest factory.

Union leaders called the dismissals an act of “aggression, truculence, cowardice and terrorism.”

Source: Reuters