Molex Bars CGT Workers from Shareholders Meeting

CHICAGO

COMMON EXPERIENCES: UE Local 1110 Pres. Armando Robles (right), from the former Republic Windows plant in Chicago, talks with (from left) Helene Bonneau, CGT Representative to the Americas, Guy Pavan, CGT Local Union Representative and Denis Parisse, Chairman of the Works Council at the Molex plant in Villemur.

Meeting of the Minds UE Field Organizer Leah Fried was with the CGT workers during their visit to Chicago. She wrote this account of the meeting between three groups of workers who have a great deal in common, which followed the Molex workers' attempt to attend the shareholders meeting. After the protest, the Molex workers met with UE members from Republic Windows and Doors as well as Hartmarx workers from Workers United/SEIU, who won their fight to keep their plant open this past summer. It was a chance to talk about the fight to save jobs and the decisions they made to occupy their factories. What they found was how much they had in common. While the banks played a major role in the US factories crisis, the companies involved acted alike. The CGT Workers' Story Here's the story shared with us by the CGT workers. Molex bought the French plant in 2004 and soon began making a large profit. Workers were commended for excellence in production and service. Despite this, Molex announced in October 2008 it would be closing the facility. Workers decided to fight that decision and defend their jobs. What followed could have happened to any one of us. The company refused to provide information, refused a fair settlement for the workers and refused to cooperate with the French Works Council charged with working to save jobs. In the course of the battle, the workers took the plant and refused to let two managers leave until they agreed to resume negotiations with a better attitude. Then workers learned that machinery had been leaving the plant to be used in production in other facilities. The company had violated the law in many ways, but was unrepentant. So when the workers struck in July 2009, the French courts ruled in their favor.  The company responded with a lockout. They have been out of work since that time, but they have never abandoned their fight to save jobs and win the benefits they have earned. No amount of resistance from  Molex will stop these workers. As Melvin Maclin, Vice-President of UE Local 1110 said to his French counterparts "no language, race or oceans will divide workers. We welcome you as brothers because we are united in struggle." Everyone left the three hour gathering feeling stronger and more committed than ever.

The French workers who made worldwide headlines last April in a fight to save their jobs found more roadblocks to overcome as they made their way to Chicago last week. Two of the workers were detained by U.S. Customs officers at O'Hare airport. Then they were barred from the meeting they had traveled here to attend. But they also found a warm welcome from several Chicago unions, including UE.

The visiting workers, members of the French Fédération des Travailleurs de la Métallurgie (CGT), have been locked in a bitter battle with global giant Molex, Inc., since August 2008 when the company announced their plant in Villemur would be closing at the cost of 283 jobs. Molex is a major supplier of electronic parts for the auto industry and is in the midst of a $120 million restructuring plan that has been highly criticized by the CGT.

APRIL TAKEOVER

These are the same workers who took over the plant last April, detaining two managers, in hopes of winning a commitment from the company to negotiate with a "better attitude." Although they won that promise, it went unkept as equipment was removed from the plant to be used elsewhere. In July workers struck the plant. In August, Molex locked them out.

Molex bought the plant in 2004 and, in the past, had praised workers there for 'excellence in production and service.' But the closing announcement, made less than four years later, sparked a bitter fight. Molex has been repeatedly charged with violating French labor laws — including its obligation to provide financial information requested by the union — as well as an agreement to work with the government to preserve jobs. The union's charges of lawbreaking company behavior were upheld by French courts in several rulings that have essentially declared the shutdown to be illegal.

• See: French ‘Boss-Napping’ Workers Bring Plant-Closing Fight to US (In These Times)

SHAREHOLDERS — BUT NOT ALLOWED IN

The Molex workers decided to take their fight to the company's annual stockholders meeting in the Chicago suburb of Lisle, Il., as properly accredited shareholders.

Their goal was to ask two questions.

First, would Molex honor their own ethics code and respect the laws of countries where they operate?  And, second, is $120 million best spent on restructuring when it hasn't proven profitable? Wouldn't it be better spent on modernizing production and better products? But they never got the chance.

On Friday, October 30, accompanied by more than eighty members of Chicago-area unions, including UE members from the former Republic Windows plant, the Molex workers arrived at the shareholders meeting. With proxies in hand, the CGT members and an AFL-CIO representative were barred from entering the meeting and threatened with arrest.

Their initial welcome to Chicago wasn't much better.

AIRPORT DETENTION

When they arrived at O'Hare airport, two of the CGT members were detained by U.S. Customs officers who had copies of French newspapers covering April's so called “bossnapping," already in hand. The workers were questioned about their union activities for four hours before they were released, but not before Chicago unions lodged several complaints with members of Congress, asking why Customs agents seemed to have been so well prepared for the arrival of workers fighting for their jobs.

INTERNATIONAL BOYCOTT?

The International Metalworkers Federation, of which the CGT is a member, has told the company that it will, if necessary, step in to urge the company's global customer base to refuse to use its products unless it abides by French law, which In These Times points out is a credible threat.

The In These Times article says, "Under 'framework agreements' negotiated between European car makers and global union federations, like the International Metalworkers Federation, the companies cannot source components from firms that violate labor rights." And it adds the CGT is prepared to demand that action.

• See: French metalworkers detained at U.S. airport for union activity (IMF Website)

In addition to UE Chicago-area members, the CGT workers were joined by members and representatives from the United Steelworkers (USW), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), Workers United/SEIU, the AFL-CIO, Jobs with Justice, and the U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP).