Conti Clairoix Tyre Workers ‘Egg’ Bosses

A small number of workers at Continental AG’s Clairoix passenger tyre factory reportedly egged their bosses in a meeting taking place in nearby Reims. According to the AFP news agency, hundreds of angry workers gathered outside the hotel in which the meeting was being held to protest at the recently announced closure of the Clairoix plant.

On 12 March French president Nicolas Sarkozy said he wished to make sure Continental was keeping its promises and respecting French legal procedures. However, the Journal du Dimanche quoted Continental vice president responsible for passenger car/light truck tyres, Bernhard Trilken, as saying Continental AG “scrupulously” followed French law with relation to the announced plant closure.

Continental workers have been blocking access to the site to protest the intended closure of the plant in March 2010 and plan to hold a demonstration tomorrow, the weekly newspaper said.

Continental workers reportedly agreed to a cost-saving programme in 2007 that included an increase of working hours to 40 a week from 35, with no compensation, in exchange for a guarantee that operations would be maintained on the site until 2012.

“It helped a lot,” Reuters quoted Bernhard Trilken as saying, “But we have no other choice today as we exhausted all short-term measures like terminating temporary contracts.”