Michelin workers in France protest against factory closures

Last week, workers at the Michelin plant in western France began burning tires and promised to go on strike after the company announced that it would close two production facilities in the country by the beginning of 2026 due to a decline in sales, reports Le Monde.

The plants in Cholet and Vannes, which employ a total of 1,250 people, will be closed, and the company says that this "drastic measure" has become "inevitable" due to competition from Asian manufacturers, as well as a decline in the competitiveness of European production, including due to inflation and rising energy prices.

On November 5, workers at the Cholet plant set fire to tires in front of the plant, protesting the closure. "Either they save our jobs or they pay us until retirement," said CGT union secretary David Goubault. "They've been exploiting us for years."

Earlier, Michelin announced that it intends to stop production at the Cholet and Vannes plants until November 13 to "give management and unions time for collective and individual discussions with employees about the situation."

The mayor of Cholet, Gilles Bourdouleix, called Michelin's behavior "a perverse version of capitalism," adding that "it's very cruel" since the company has been operating in the city for five decades.

The Cholet plant primarily produces tires for light trucks, and in recent years, as Michelin reported, there has been a significant decline in this segment of the European market "without any prospects for recovery." In Vannes, metal cord is mainly produced, which is then used in tire production at the company's plants in countries such as Spain and Italy.

In 2020, Michelin already closed a plant in La Roche-sur-Yon in western France (the company says that 635 new jobs were created in the city, while initially 613 people lost their jobs), and by 2025, two sites in Germany will be closed.

Photo: AFP / Jean-François Monier.