Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
The tyre manufacturer Michelin announced the closure of its plant at La Roche-sur-Yon (Vendée) by the end of 2020, resulting in 619 dismissals. The site manufactures top-of-the-range tyres for heavy goods vehicles. The company is closing the plant despite the efforts of its employees to improve competitiveness. According to management, the plant, affected by Asian competition and deteriorating markets, no longer had the volumes necessary to be competitive.
Workers will be offered early retirement, or internal and external mobility measures; and a public-private project will be launched to give the plant a new future.
The unions are firmly protesting. A 'future pact' for the plant, signed in 2016, between the unions and the company has been disregarded. Despite €70 million of investments, this agreement was interrupted in February 2018 due to insufficient sales. The union CFE-CGC denounces a 'purely financial decision'. The SUD union demanded the withdrawal of the project and called for an unlimited strike. The CGT, called for a general mobilisation within the group in France. The CFDT denounced the closure of the site.
74 workers at the Cholet (Maine-et-Loire) plant employed in the manufacture of gums for La Roche-sur-Yon will be affected by this closure. They will be offered a new position at the plant, or early retirement.
At the end of September, the company also announced that it would close its Bamberg site in Germany (850 jobs).
Two previous recruitments took place at La Roche-sur-Yon: in 2016 (100 job creations) and 2017 (100 job creations).
Eurofound (2019), Michelin, Closure in France, factsheet number 98893, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/98893.