The general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, warned of a “very strong acceleration in the deterioration of the situation” in terms of social plans, mainly in industry but also in other sectors, citing up to 200,000 jobs threatened, in an interview with Echoes to be published this Wednesday, November 27. While in May she spoke of 130 social plans representing 33,021 direct jobs eliminated or “strongly threatened” (60,000 counting subcontracting and temporary work), then at the beginning of November of nearly 200 social plans and 150,000 jobs threatened by a “violent industrial bloodletting”, Sophie Binet now mentions “nearly 250 layoff plans in preparation, concerning between 170 000 and 200,000 jobs”, in this interview ahead of a press conference on the industry, which she is to hold on Wednesday afternoon.
This count, carried out based on feedback from workers’ union activists, unsurprisingly concerns sectors in crisis such as automobiles and aerospace, but also mass distribution, according to the head of the union center. She fears “a tidal wave” in the months to come, fearing cascading plans: “These plans take place especially in large companies, restructuring risks having consequences on small subcontractors, much more numerous”, warns the leader of the CGT.
“Political shipwreck”
To explain this rise in power, Sophie Binet points to “the responsibility of large companies”, which according to her “made the choice during the period of inflation to increase their margins and their prices to increase their dividends”, with the consequence of drop in investments, a drop in wages in constant euros “and therefore a reduction in consumption”. She also takes issue with the supply-side policy pursued since Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, “a political shipwreck”, according to her.
Among the emergency measures advocated by Sophie Binet: “a return to regulated prices” of energy for industry, “which takes into account the cost of production” and the investments necessary for the relaunch of nuclear power; the establishment by Europe of “more protective” customs barriers; but also “a strengthening of the Florange law”, which obliges an employer to seek a buyer in the event of a closure project and its extension to SMEs with 50 or more employees. In the longer term, she calls for “real general meetings of the industry to put everything back on track”.