Rhodia workers set to join French general strike

18 March 2009 11:53  [Source: ICIS news]

PARIS (ICIS news)--Employees from speciality chemicals company Rhodia will join the general strike that is expected to bring France to a standstill on Thursday, said trade union representatives on Wednesday.

The CGT, France’s largest union, said six coaches of employees would join the protests from Rhodia Polyamide's Saint-Fons site in the Rhone, southeast France.

The workers would be joined by colleagues from Arkema and Bluestar, according to the trade union.

The CGT was unhappy with Rhodia’s proposals for “flexibility measures”.

Rhodia’s CEO Jean-Pierre Clamadieu said last month when announcing his company’s fiscal year 2008 results that the group would have to enforce rigorous financial discipline to ensure it “comes out of the [economic] crisis stronger”.

He admitted that this would have consequences for certain employees and that Rhodia was in talks with unions about increasing employment flexibility.

A spokeswoman for Rhodia said national union representatives had been calling for employees to join the protests, but she had no further information.

Union representatives from Total were also expected to join the protests after the company recently announced plans to shed 555 posts despite record group profits in 2008.

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By: Philippa Jones
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