Whether we're blue-collar or white-collar workers, in the public or private sector, the government and big business are giving us no respite. After stealing two years of retirement from us and the brutal rise in prices, now come the massive job cuts!
200 plant closures have already been announced. And that's not counting the hundreds of small suppliers and subcontractors dragged down by the biggest companies. 150,000 or even 200,000 job losses are expected in the automotive, chemical, steel and retail industries... This is a major attack.
But there's nothing inevitable about it. Those responsible – Michelin, Auchan, Bosch, Valeo... – are wealthy companies whose shareholders are sitting on mountains of capital. They have the financial means to guarantee jobs and wages for all their employees. They can spread out production between the dozens, the hundreds of plants that they own around the world, and preserve all the jobs.
Would this cost them money? Yes! Would it reduce their profits? Yes, it would. But where is it written that they have to make an 8%, a 10% or even a 15% margin? Last year, Michelin made a profit of two billion euros and distributed 900 million euros to its shareholders. So the money needed to save jobs and wages can and should be taken from those dividends!
The fortunes of major shareholders such as the Michelin, Mulliez and Peugeot families are worth billions of euros. Not receiving dividends for a few years won't deprive them of anything. They'll continue to fly all over the planet in private jets, moving from one luxury palace to the next, and blowing thousands of euros in just one evening.
But in Cholet (Maine-et-Loire), if the Michelin plant closes down and unemployment soars, how many workers will no longer be able to repay their loans, pay for their children's education or properly heat their homes? How many will end up with small pensions? Growing poverty will also hit independent workers, small shopkeepers and farmers, who are already strangled by the drop in consumption and by the loans taken out during the Covid pandemic.
Manufacturers claim to be “in crisis”. They say it’s caused by weak sales of electric cars in Europe, competition from China and high energy prices. And the European bourgeoisie is indeed destabilized by its Chinese and American competitors.
But in this crisis, big business has lost nothing. In order not to lose a penny, the capitalists are turning against hundreds of thousands of workers.
This is why they are reorganizing their production system, opening factories here and closing others there, withdrawing capital from sites or businesses deemed not profitable enough. So we shouldn’t feel sorry for employers. Not only is big business super rich and still begging for more, it has also declared war on the working class!
Let's not be fooled by those who promise to fight “unfair” competition and promote protectionism. Competition is always considered unfair by those losing out, especially the smaller companies, which always end up being eaten up by the bigger ones. The problem is the very principle of competition, the permanent rat race, the law of the jungle.
Big business defends this economic system tooth and nail. They are its main actors and beneficiaries. The private ownership of companies and competition are the basis of capitalism. For the most powerful corporations, it's a source of endless enrichment and a means of pitting workers the world over against each other to exploit them ever more.
Political rhetoric about reindustrialization and protectionism is nothing but demagoguery. The capitalists are gambling our jobs and our lives in the global casino of finance for their own parasitic interests. Our only protection is our anger, our fighting spirit and our organization.
Struggles, walkouts and strikes are taking place in some of the factories threatened with closure. The workers fighting for their jobs and wages are right to do so. But they must not be left alone. Job cuts are affecting so many sectors and regions that we will all suffer the consequences. So, this fight must become the fight of all workers!
A general mobilization cannot be decreed, especially after years of setbacks. But big business leaves us no choice. We will have to fight with the conviction that we are not condemned to submit to the dictates of a rapacious minority. It's all a question of balance of power. And because the working class produces everything and makes everything function in society, we can and must speak out and take action!
Nathalie Arthaud