000 terminated AirLib regained a position

The brand purchased, transferred French staff! " S corruptions signs in hand, hundreds of employees of the manufacturer of lingerie Aubade have insisted their anger, yesterday, the National Assembly. Since a few days, their plant in Saint-Savin, in the Vienne, is at risk. And the Directorate announced the removal of 104 jobs on 132. Last Monday, it was the "assassin Michelin" slogan that sounded through the streets of Seclin (Nord): 250 employees of the Sodemeca factory protested 1.093 deletions of stations programmed by the manufacturer.

Before them, employees of Continental, Goodyear, Caterpillar or Molex, 3 m or Faurecia has delivered a public battle to their direction. Their weapon Raising the information on the newspapers, on the Web, the waves or the television channels, angry slogans or actions punched, kicked as the kidnappings of patterns. Even go that their actions wrong, like the "Conti", who trashed the Sub-Prefecture of Compiegne.

"With the avalanche of social plans, mediated conflicts are only a small minority of businesses, tempers Alain Petitjean, Director-General of cabinet semaphores. However, between January and may 2009, more than 683 articles published in the daily press contained the word "confinement", according to online media agency Basta. And alert opinion appears to be much more effective "that with the crisis and the business related to the remuneration of managers, unions have the feeling that the public will be on their side" in, view Brice Mallié, Associate Director in the Office of human resources BPI.

"Bonus unrest".

Fight the closings by proxy media becomes an instrument for the defence of employees. "We fought, passing in the night swallowing the smoke of burned tires, supported on our flags," says Antonio Da Costa, delegate in Continental Trade Union CFTC, used for thirty years at the Clairoix plant" People called me the Mexico or Dominican Republic because they had seen me on TV. Worldwide, Continental leaders were ashamed!

The struggle is bearing fruit. After two months of fighting, the Continental's Clairoix factory employees, among others, received a bonus of 50,000 euros per person, when the licensees of other sites of the group will have to settle for less generous starting conditions. Similarly, Scapa or Sony, departure envelopes have been improved. "This is a bonus for the unrest," says Max Matta, ex-DRH of Moulinex, now partner-Manager of the Wingers HR Strategy consulting company.

No choice, replicates the trade unionist Odile Szczyglowski, President of the departmental union of the CFTC of Isère and signatory to the accord which has saved 133 jobs at Caterpillar: "When there is no dialogue, the only thing on which we have a soft power is the image of the company." Companies don't like to see their dirty linen in public.

The method is not new. In 2001, Moulinex employees thinly flour General Council at the time where anthrax was a threat. In 1999, the workshops Chantiers du Havre workers threw parts of ship in the streets of the city. And, in 2000, employees of the Cellatex textile factory threatened to discharge of acid into the Meuse. "The objective is to create a report of force to influence the negotiation," says Maurad Rabhi, Confederal Secretary of the CGT and former Cellatex." Attract the eye of the cameras force leaders to act, not on the sly but at the big day.

What trip leaders. "In France, the Directorates in charge of a social plan to trap often in a cautious approach to regulation." "Or who loses the hand of communication loses the battle", admits Patrick Tabary, a former industrial Manager.

The media attention also to put pressure on the public authorities, to force them to use their multiple intervention tools. "The administration of labour can encourage a company to revise its copy," explains Max Matta. And even if its margin of manoeuvre is limited in the case of a private company, "I don't know any business leader who wants to jam with the local administration", he says.

But, on the matter, nothing like that of a leader's policy. After having paraded with the employees of Heuliez, Ségolène Royal, President of Poitou-Charentes, thus wrote, in early June, the President of the Republic that State help the automotive OEM in rout.

CV excluded from outset

The intervention may be more discrete. "Policy can move a folder to Brussels," provides Gilles Nicoli, former steward CFDT Airlib air company, which closed its doors in 2003. And pressures are sometimes insidious. "When a cabinet convenes a direction for the sommer to explain, the leaders are in their small shoes, tells Odile Szczyglowski. "Not to mention that the public authorities are often the clients of these major groups".

However, the use of the media can be a double-edged weapon. First because the messages returned by the media are hardly controllable. "I learned that Michelin would terminate by reading the newspaper on the Internet." I to not believe my eyes! Local journalists rushed to the doors of the factory to query employees who were not yet aware! ", says Frédéric Bauchard, General Secretary of the departmental Union Force ouvrière, Clermont-Ferrand. In addition, "media accentuate the dramatic side, encouraging companies to act in the rush to appease opinion, considers Jean-Pierre Aubert, former inter-ministerial delegate to the restructuring of the defence. But a cheque paid to calm the spirits can obscure other responses, more sustainable, as, for example, the efforts on the reclassification of employees.

Because the fundamental problems remain. "Regardless of the advertising about a conflict, few are closing records that have been challenged," said Olivier Labarre, Deputy General Director of the BPI Office.

But once the plant is closed, local employers, often of SMEs, are reluctant to hire actors to a hard conflict. It is all the more difficult to reach an anonymous SME that is has been recognized by thousands of supporters. "Recruit people who have been in the front line of conflict is fear," Jacques Brunel, lawyer associate Fidal provides. In 2003, 1.800 to 3.000 terminated AirLib regained a position. But "the view of the name of some delegates was sufficient to what their CV immediately falls into the dustbin of the potential recruiter," says Gilles Nicoli.

The situation is even more dramatic on affected employment basins. In the Ardennes, three years after the closure of the plant, less than 40 153 Cellatex workers had found a Commission position. At this point that a cabinet of reclassification had advised them to remove the name of the company of their CV to get an appointment with potential employers. Some replaced the Cellatex name by his former House-mother, Rhône-Poulenc. "I do not arrived at the headquarters of the CGT in Paris by chance," said Maurad Rabhi. Our struggle has embarrassed many local actors: they have never forgiven me.

The intoxication of cameras

The impact is also psychological. "Not only conflicts leave a trace in the local employers, but they affect employees, struggling to make their mourning, analysis Alain Petitjean." When the fight was hard, many have lost confidence and are defeated in advance for future employers. However, it is very difficult to find a job to someone who is not motivated.

Amplified by the media, the fighting reinforce the membership of the licensees in the company at risk. "The trauma is sustainable, that combat tipped employees in the professional register in the emotional register," said Brice Mallié, in BPI. But at a social level, people are fragile.

In addition, "some can be dimmed by the cameras," says Gilles Nicoli. But the chaff of media are ephemeral. "The time of the conflict, you sparkle, you are on the front of the stage, you are a cause." And then nothing. "When the lights are extinguished, you retombez in the shade, in solitude, isolation", says Maurad Rabhi.

As the public opinion, it is capricious. "Force of events, Compiègne traders who supported began to exasperate." "There is a fatigue", recognizes Antonio Da Costa, in Continental. "Time is on our against recognizes Maurad Rabhi.". The harder is to keep the head on the shoulders. Today, there are the "Conti", or "caterpillar". But who remembers Metaleurop, LU or Cellatex