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BE SEEING YOU
In Besançon, just before Christmas,
at the gate of Rhodiacéta factory.
Take five...
Important news from Lyons.
George Maurivard, called Yoyo, an active unionist,
has news for the changing shift.
News from Lyons and for tomorrow.
Take five, mates, and get together.
Take five and gather around the cars.
92 lay-offs in Lyons.
Have a five-minute break, mates.
Rhodiacéta, a Rhône-Poulenc branch,
hires 14 000 workers in Lyon- Vaise,
Besançon and St Fons Belle Etoile.
They are threatened by redundancies announced by Management
who blame the Common Market for the loss
of the monopoly of textile production processes.
Come and form a group.
Speaking of lay-offs here makes a vague threat more concrete.
On this cold Christmas Eve,
as the 4 around-the-clock shifts change-over,
a meeting is improvised.
Get closer so we don't have to shout.
In Lyons, on 1 5th December,
the comrades were given their payslips.
On their payslips, there was nothing anymore.
So the workers of the 4 shifts stopped work.
Management forced a lock-out of the mill.
There was a meeting
between Management and the Unions
on Saturday afternoon.
They reached an agreement
and decided to resume work on Monday
with no sanctions.
But on Monday morning,
the comrades were refused jobs.
CGT unionist G. Lièvremont is listening to Yoyo.
He was on the stretching line
but he now has higher responsibilities in the union.
He is a young shop steward
elected by the workers during the 1 967 great strike.
That is when we met him
and Yoyo, then a young and active CFDT member
who had made his first public address to his comrades.
When did you step up for the first time?
During a shift where no one else would do it
and my mates dragged me onto the box
and I just had to do it.
Do you remember what you said?
I remember it was very short
as I was nervous, but apparently I was pretty good.
I think you have to be brief.
March 1967: the great strike, in Rhodia's terms.
It was long: one full month,
and original: a sit-in, disregarded since 1 936.
It reformulated the idea
that instability due to work causes disorder in your life.
No pay rise could make up for it.
They would not bargain, as in the US,
for a so-called welfare society, a civilisation of leisure.
Instead, they challenged that society and civilisation.
The real result of that strike
was not a 3 or 4% rise
but the education of young workers
discovering the true identity of their struggle.
It was a decision by all the workers
who chose to go on strike to stop unemployment.
In those conditions,
the guys got together
and for the first time they had a community life
for eight hours a day at least,
in the restaurant and other places at the mill,
which was a novelty for them.
Then we really got to know one another.
They took up more important tasks
as the strike went on :
the Support Committee, the library,
Ieading cultural debates.
For us, culture is a struggle, a claim.
Just as the right to have bread
and lodgings, we claim access to culture.
We lead the same fight for culture
as for the union or in the political field.
The Management often use the word culture.
It's a rag-bag of a word.
But they never say the word union or political party.
Culture is for them, they have it,
so they can talk about it.
Then confidence grew among the lads.
Here, for example, many thought the shop stewards
were just big mouths.
But then they saw that when problems appeared,
we tried solutions together.
- You met the communists? - I got to know them.
What did you think of them?
Well, I avoided them.
And I got to know Cèbe, we lived together for a month,
I'd go to his place and most of his mates were communists
and I could debate with those guys.
They looked like regular people,
whereas before, I thought
their faces marked them as communist.
But I saw 30 or 40 of them,
they all worked with us and fought
in an intelligent way for peace
and culture.
Who were they? Commies!
That's when you start thinking.
- Where did that lead you? - To the Party, 6 months later.
I used to see the communists
as those not attending Mass.
It was easy to work out.
- So we were told. - It was simple.
One thing that surprises me now,
is that my father, who isn't stupid,
always said good things about them.
It's all coming back to me incidentally.
He never defamed them
and now I see they were as worthy as the others.
I'm from the land,
I mean the country.
We've always had the principle in our family,
of going to Mass, to Church.
When I left my home and family,
I did my national service
and later I was hired at Rhodia
and there I became aware of things
I hadn't seen before.
When you start working, the big theory goes like this:
"Lucky to have bosses to give you a job."
That's what you start with.
"What would you do without them? "
"It's cool, all these breaks!
"Always complaining."
"Without the bosses, what would we do? "
We enter the working world with that idea.
2 weeks after I joined the company, a strike broke out.
I didn't even know what a strike was.
I stopped work.
I asked you: "Can I strike? "
All were on strike so I stopped too
and I didn't even know why.
I had had a clash with the union.
Not the CFDT, but the CGT. I worked in Sochaux
and I didn't want to hear about them anymore.
There were strikes I didn't even join.
Then with the great strike, it clicked.
STUDENT SUPPORT
On the 1 9th day, I went to Sochaux to collect funds,
where I worked before, at Peugeot.
The guys said: "Keep it up, don't let them get you!".
They'd been through it before
and had lost the battle,
so they didn't want us to fail, we had to win.
Since I've been at Rhodia, I've been impressed
by those who spoke out.
The guys getting up on a box to talk.
I was very impressed because, as a country boy,
I'd never seen someone addressing a crowd
and be capable of holding their attention.
Maybe it was Yoyo or Castella or someone, whoever.
So as soon as I could talk to those people,
I took a chance.
The first reason is personal.
I knew only one thing: by talking to those guys,
I had a chance to learn something.
I saw how different those guys were
from the ones working in my shop.
I knew that by mixing with them, I would gain something.
Self-interested!
Yes, in that sense, I was.
The first reason was personal, to gain personally.
So I was really impressed in March,
when everybody was outside
and the mill was at a standstill,
the bosses couldn't get in. A great victory.
I didn't think it was possible
for us to paralyse a factory
as we did then.
We did odd tasks, stuck posters
and wrote messages on walls. Things we had to do
or forbidden ones.
We could go in freely! And eat when we wanted to.
It was cool. A movie every night, it was just wonderful.
You hoped it would last?
I didn't think it would, but still, what was wonderful
was the spirit there.
We were all full of pep, especially at the beginning...
Well, those who were not there we just didn't see them.
It was great, a film every evening.
Some evenings, people were dancing. Just great!
I regretted we had to resume work,
having won so little.
Now I realise it may not have been a great victory.
It was a step...
Because a single battle doesn't mean you've won
the war.
Instead, you win it
with a struggle, I mean a long-term struggle,
a struggle which may last long.
You must always fight, not only make a single brilliant move.
Such a move gets you short-lived attention.
But I think that by fighting
and by trying to...
to know as many things as possible
to be as many as possible, we'll get somewhere.
G. Lièvremont also went from instinctive to organised action.
Why am I an active unionist?
At 1 4,
I started to work in a mill,
I earned 48.50 francs per hour.
I walked to work.
My boss was 40.
I had to work 8 hours a day
and I had to walk
whereas he drove a huge car.
He was strong and healthy.
It was unfair and problems had to be solved,
things had to change.
So, in the beginning, I said:
"Let's kill him and take his place".
But I didn't do it.
Then I met a second worker.
Then there were three of us, then four.
Then one day, it was in 1 956,
we went on strike.
It wasn't easy.
There was no union, we knew nothing
but we wanted to fight the boss.
A trade-union representative came
and gave us advice and helped us.
Then the strike ended.
I can't remember if we won anything or not.
But I was committed.
Although we may have won 1 0 francs then,
the gap was still wide to fill.
It still is today.
- All I can say... - You earn less than before.
They rip me off for 68 000 francs.
That's theft, it is.
- A maze. - Precisely.
Where is the rip-off, is it in the total?
It's simple.
You have an incentive bonus
which was 1 9.5% until 5th December.
The 1 9.5 was calculated on the past six months pay.
A guy who had earned 600 000 francs in six months
was granted in December
a 1 9.5 % bonus on top of his pay.
Then, changes were made
and the bonus dropped to only 9,5%.
Half the expected rate.
Lay-offs are more threatening.
This is the news in December 1 967 for Rhodia's workers.
Other factors are permanent:
the much discussed four 8-hour shifts
which cause in the workers' daily life
troubles that go beyond discomfort.
I work the four 8-hour shifts.
It's a 7-day week.
I'll take this week, it'll be clearer.
It's quite complicated.
So, I worked Tuesday and Wednesday mornings,
Thursday and Friday afternoons
and Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights.
You see, I work two days and three nights.
To cover the whole week, I work seven days in a row.
When I work nights, I get home at 4.30 and she leaves at 6.30.
I see her when she wakes me up, I'm bad-tempered.
It's like that when you've slept badly,
you feel awful.
She gets home at 6.30 p.m. and I leave at 7.20.
She has to fix dinner,
we eat in a hurry and then I'm off.
Same thing when I work afternoons.
I'm home when she needs sleep.
We eat, she goes to bed, she's tired.
So we hardly see each other.
Then, the kid on top of it.
Well, I guess she's worse off than me.
She takes her with her in the morning, because I can't.
When she leaves for work, she takes her to the baby-sitter.
Then at noon, she picks her up.
Then she takes her back at 1.30 and resumes work at 2.00.
She picks her up at 1.30. She goes up for 1 5 minutes.
What can she do during that time?
We have no family life.
A woman could hope for a better life, I think.
I'll tell you about a mate of mine.
His wife had a nervous breakdown
and now she's OK but they're having a divorce,
the case is in process.
Things went wrong.
He put up with her while she was ill,
he exhausted himself.
Now that she's OK, he wants to pick himself up
but they're getting a divorce, the case is pending.
It's because his wife had a nervous breakdown.
You see, the guy is already worn out
due to work and his wife's illness. He's flat out.
They have no other way out.
They don't get on anymore.
And it's true that when she talks about her job,
it upsets me, you see.
I can't be bothered. I'm fed up with talking about this job.
Our work isn't useful.
For us, it just brings in a pay,
but the job is meaningless. We're working for nothing.
Working for someone else is no fun.
We're driven by the machine, always the same movements.
There's nothing of interest in the job.
I start at 8.00. At 8.10, I'm already looking at my watch.
I'm bored. We have lost our spirit, we're just bored.
I wonder if it's like that in other companies
when a couple works daytime.
They must also be worn out.
A woman's role is really no fun here.
She's got no leisure,
only work. I try to help but there are things I can't do.
In the morning, she starts at 6.30.
She gets up at 6.30 and she leaves at 7.30.
She's home at 1 2 and goes shopping,
she comes back, prepares lunch,
we eat in no time, she washes up,
drops the kid and back to work.
And in the evening, it's the same.
If I work nights, it's a rush.
If I'm not, she does the washing and ironing.
It goes on for days on end.
We arrive every morning, knowing where to go,
which mill we'll be at.
We get there, there's a clock like that,
showing the minutes.
There are changes every 30 minutes, 20 minutes,
every 45 minutes and every 36 minutes.
So we never stop.
When the hand reaches 60, we start a new spool.
We remove the spool which weighs 20-22 kg,
put it on a trolley behind us,
we remove the fluff,
cut the thread and we label it.
There's only one minute between spools.
Then we move one, then we move another.
We do 20 spools like that.
It takes 20 minutes for 20 spools.
We remove the fluff and label each one
and clean the mill, so the 30 or 36 minutes fly by.
We must start again all the time, for 8 hours.
They have several tricks.
One of the latest is automation.
We call it speeding things up.
2 years ago, at the stretching section,
I did 1 88 cops.
Today, I did 244.
They ask us to collaborate.
They say: "Let's come to an agreement
"and we'll reorganise the work.
"We'll give 2/1 00th of a second for a job."
2/1 00th on top of the 2 seconds we already had.
Double time. But as we need 6, we've lost 2.
Usually, you eat when you're hungry.
At Rhodia, it's not necessarily so.
You eat when the electronic brain says
we must eat because there's a lull in production.
We eat when that brain decides we have to.
Always the same movements,
the same machines, the same work.
I feel it's always the same film, the same record.
I'd like to talk to someone who finds an interest
in doing that gesture
244 times a day
and that other gesture 244 times a day.
We remove the top spool, we have a small brush,
we take the thread with it and put it on the lower spool.
then we lift the spool and put it away.
- All day long? - All day like that.
- You're working the shifts? - Yes, I always have.
You like it better?
I did, at the start. Now it's getting hard.
Morning, afternoon or night, I'm worn out.
I get home, I go to bed.
We can do it for 5 years and then it's hard.
Then when I get home,
I fall asleep at the table. I'm wrung out.
- How old are you? - 38.
Do you need to sleep during the day?
- All the time. - When I get home,
If I work from 3 a.m. till 12,
I'm here at 1 2.20 and by 1.00 I'm in bed.
I sleep a bit until 3 or 4 p.m.
When the weather is lousy, I stay in bed until 5 p.m.
I go to bed early because I must get up at 3 a.m.
- Do you manage to rest? - Not really. I can't rest.
When I wake up, I feel awful and I've got a headache.
I'm spaced out, knocked out.
In the beginning, it was all right.
Now I get upset for no reason. The noise makes me grumpy.
- There is noise. - It's nothing now.
Nothing at all now.
- Like that all day long. - Is it?
Yes, it's always like that.
From 6 a.m. till 1 0 p.m.
In winter till 10 p.m. otherwise, till 1 a.m.
Tell me, what do you do in your free time?
In winter, I can't do much,
I do odd jobs, I washed the kitchen walls.
And in summer I go fishing.
- Where? - I go fishing.
I pick mushrooms.
Lilies of the valley.
The fresh air does me good.
- Do you have a car? - No.
- Why not? - It's too expensive.
You must get a licence. Some friends have failed 6 times,
So they've given up.
One sat for the Highway code,
Failed. He failed the driving test too. There's always something wrong.
It's his 6th time.
But his wife passed first go!
- She works at Rhodia? - No.
They have a car but the wife drives it.
- It's embarrassing. - Why?
A woman driving the car...
Don't women drive better?
- I'm not sure. - They do.
- They're better at it. - I don't know.
Does he complain?
No, she drives well.
I've been in the car with her before.
She'd like to try the test.
- He won't let me. - Why not?
We barely make ends meet.
I could try but he won't let me.
Having a car is so expensive.
Registration, petrol, repairs...
Then men would rely too much on their wives.
- What do you make of that? - It's true.
Would it hurt his pride if you could drive?
It'd hurt his male self-esteem.
We all have a moped.
- So the women... - They use the moped.
It's handy in the summer. It's better.
We go fishing together, on the river.
- We take the kids. - And a book.
The open air...
Fishing, hunting,
picking mushrooms, snails...
The open air.
We really need it.
This is where we really feel good.
Because even when we go out to see a good show,
we always feel closed-in.
Even a nice show, we're glad at the end because we're fed up
with being indoors.
Whereas outdoors, we're more alive.
What's the most tiring, the repetitive movements?
No, it's being on your feet.
We stand up all day, it's forbidden to lean on...
We have waste bins behind us and it's forbidden to lean on them.
We do it though,
but if we're caught... It depends on the foremen.
- Would leaning slow productivity? - No!
But we have to stay in front of the machines.
Always on the move, so...
He's at Rhodia too.
Have a seat.
He's off work, on sick leave.
- You're at the mill? - Sorry?
- Where do you work? - At the finishing section.
- You work the shifts? - Yes.
- Since how long? - 1 1 years.
- Nearly 1 2. - How old are you?
39.
Do you listen to d'Astier sometimes?
Oh yes!
At the moment, in Besançon,
in Vaise and other places,
a long strike is on.
In Besançon, it's been on for 17 days.
It's a conflict between an overbearing management,
it's unbearable,
and the working class, far from politics.
He makes some sharp comments.
There is truth in what he says.
For me, he speaks frankly.
- You feel he's sincere? - That's what I think.
He's not afraid to speak up.
He speaks his mind.
He spoke well of the guys at Rhodia.
With all he said...
We watch d'Astier de la Vigerie, don't we?
- You like him too? - Oh yes!
I like him. He speaks well.
He speaks his mind.
Communism is the only organised force in France,
except for the De Gaulle phenomenon.
What is it?
A hope for a major part of the working class.
And a refuge for dissatisfied people.
But one thing must be pointed out:
communism is much stronger
as a sting on the rump of the capitalist ox
than as an ideology.
He's neither for the government nor...
He is, but he's not really for De Gaulle.
He says what he thinks.
He's for De Gaulle but he's not a Gaullist.
Did they mention the Rhodia strike on TV?
Very briefly. What did they say?
Something upset me.
When we marched in the streets,
there were at least 400 to 500 of us.
We came home to watch the news.
They said we were less than 50.
We realised they were telling lies.
All the Rhodia guys saw it.
We were disgusted.
We were there, we could see it.
That's why when the TV is here
the delegates won't talk anymore.
Following the lay-offs in Lyons, during a meeting
Castella exposes a new aspect of the problem:
Management want to get rid of the unionists.
Out of these 92 comrades, 79 are in the union,
former stewards or active members.
It shows
that Management are making a selection.
They have decided to crack down on the union.
A foreman told us that, according to rumours,
the bosses almost agreed to raise the bonus.
He didn't say how much. But some lads would be sacked.
We won't have it. We told him we wanted
the 90 lads inside first, then the bonus.
The bosses are smart.
They'd raise the bonus slightly to keep us quiet.
Then they would sack the 90 guys.
That's what they're plotting.
Raise the bonus a bit, by 1 or 2% and the lads...
They're being accused of sabotage.
Some of them were on sick leave and they have been laid off.
Could they sabotage anything if they were away?
It shows these lay-offs were planned before.
It's meant to break our backs.
At Peugeot, what did they do
when the stewards were sacked?
It's to break the backs of many.
82 out of the 90 are unionised, it seems.
At Peugeot, 3 or 4 years ago, when they were sacked,
it was the same story.
The reason is to break the militants' backs.
To say "that'll calm you down".
- Was there really sabotage? - We don't know.
They should have complained to the police.
It seems there was sabotage in Besançon too.
We heard about it.
And they lodged a complaint.
Listen to this: a guy from Rhodia was accused,
they booked him at Goudimel, with no evidence
as per usual. We've all been through that.
They took him there and bashed him.
Then they let him go as they can't keep you after 48 hours.
He went back to work in the evening.
The Superintendent went to see him.
He asked : "What did they do to you? "
"You really want to know? "
He slapped the cop in front of all.
The cop said he would deal with the case.
Slapping the cop with all the workers watching.
The Superintendent was pulling a face.
I suggest to let the movement continue.
The delegates assess the situation.
The workers are hesitant.
The threat of lay-offs and the lack of a real union unity
have undermined combativeness.
Strike calls are modified.
- We must have a plan. - And the outgoing shifts?
We must ask for their opinion, ask them the question.
- We must do it at 1 :30. - 1 :30 then?
- For the day you mean? - Let's see them at 8 p.m.
It'll have to be quick.
We plan a 24-hour strike on Friday,
the cotton-mill lads keep working
but they must give their wages
to the workers being sacked in Vaise.
Even if they go back in, they'll lose out.
We must help them.
It's not a bad idea.
Tell the others, because we're not many...
The spinning machines keep working?
We'll force no one to work but we'll try to have a maximum...
to avoid a lock-out because our fight won't be easy.
There's a chance to have them back in if we fight.
There are possible talks on wages.
Yesterday, they wanted to talk about the bonus.
They're luring us with the bonus.
It's just blackmail.
There's a bonus but the money is blocked for 5 years.
So what does that leave us?
What solution do you have?
He wants revolution.
Only revolution, otherwise we'll get nowhere.
Nowhere. All the lads say so.
Small strikes are useless.
Yes, but the others don't see it that way.
Only Rhodia's workers and the railways workers fight.
At Lip, there were lay-offs.
They just complained.
A strike is too costly for them.
True, money's scarce but it'll get worse.
We should do as in 1 936, that's the only way.
- Where did it start in 36? - In textiles.
- You were too young! - I've heard about it.
It was in Lyons, with the silk workers I think.
How did it start? You remember the details?
The CGTU and the CGT were united?
Yes, so I was told.
Union is the main thing anyway.
The only way to win.
RHODlA, WE SHALL WlN
- Off to work! - I'm off too.
Good bye, gentlemen.
I'm going too.
I'll pop in tomorrow before 1 0.
Two days before Christmas, the strike takes place.
The cotton-mill workers
are advised to stay in to avoid the risk of a lock-out
and to give their pay to the Lyons sacked workers.
The others should strike,
including salaried white collars,
all those less concerned by the workers' actions.
The workers feel bitter towards them :
when lay-offs threatened employees
the workers backed them up.
Yoyo suggests : in order to ask the outgoing employees
to back the workers,
the strikers must block the factory gate.
You have no time! We had time for you.
Bastard! You son of a bitch!
BACK THE SACKED WORKERS
They're a bunch of rat-bags!
YOU GET NOWHERE ALONE
You're also exploited.
The sacked workers in Lyons rely on you.
- Take it easy! - What!
- You bastards! - Wait a minute.
Not more than others.
... solidarity will bring us victory!
For who? For us?
We stopped work for you, don't forget.
It's over.
The white collars listened but didn't join.
Even among the workers, commitment is not unanimous.
But strikes are not a series of final matches
with results on a big board.
They were not more defeated at Christmas
than they had been victorious in Spring.
Either way,
they keep learning.
Rhodia's strike has not failed.
They want Christmas for their kids and they need to work.
About 1 0 000 workers have lost a day's pay,
just like that.
It is not a prowess, it's solidarity and it is something
formidable compared to TV games or trash papers.
It's far better, it's wonderful.
Some don't even realise...
It's normal, it's the working class...
That's what we must be aware of.
What is beautiful is not what is written in the tabloids.
It's what the working class does.
It's to lose 5000 francs to support our sacked mates,
and to contribute today again
to make up for their lost pay.
If only this was advertised and spread...
- lsn't that culture? - Sure is.
I want to tell Management
we'll win thanks to the solidarity they know nothing about.
We'll get you.
We're not mad at those who think wrongly they are the boss,
but we'll get those who own capital,
it has to be, it's natural and we'll be seeing you.
Subtitles: Eliza & Malcolm McDonald
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