France's industry minister threatened Wednesday to call a boycott against US car parts maker Molex, accusing it of blocking a buy-out proposal for a French plant that would save hundreds of jobs.
The Molex group has been embroiled in months of negotiations on the fate of 283 workers at a plant in southern Villemur-sur-Tarn, after it shuts down for good in October and production is relocated to the United States.
Industry Minister Christian Estrosi issued a statement after what he described as "very tense" talks with group head of development Eric Doesburg, charging that "the US management of Molex is not behaving as it should."
He accused the US firm, headquartered in Lisle, Illinois, of obstructing a buy-out proposal from an unnamed third party, even though the government was prepared to fully finance the deal.
"The only obstacle to the buyer's proposal is the stance of Molex, whose particularly unconstructive attitude is blocking any solution for the future of the site at Villemur-sur Tarn and its 283 employees," he said.
Estrosi called on Molex to negotiate "in good faith" to reach a deal by the beginning of next week.
If not, he said the French government would "draw the full consequences including by officially asking French car manufacturers to immediately suspend all orders of products made by the Molex group."
But the US group said on Wednesday it was "shocked" by the French government's stance and that talks with the buyer had broken down through no fault of its own.
"The company identified by the French government... did not seem to have a business plan for the Villemur factory and its staff, and did not have the will to make the necessary capital investments," Molex said in a statement.
"Molex is concerned by the erroneous portrayal of its reindustrialisation efforts," added the group.
"The very least we can say is that we were surprised, shocked by the minister's statement," said the group's head of human resources for Europe, Markus Kerriou.
The Villemur-sur-Tarn plant closed last month for security reasons after Molex accused a group of workers of assaulting Doesberg when he travelled there for talks.
The workers, who have been on strike since July 7, want Molex to agree to a business takeover of the site, which they insist is still economically viable.
But the US group, which is present elsewhere in the European market, has said it is ready to sell off the site's machinery but will not allow a potential competitor to purchase the entire business.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.e3a8559d0803842b321498a03088687a.851&show_article=1Synopsis:
Molex (electrical connector manufacturing company) has employee relation problems with French factory. Unable to settle differences, they opt to shut down the factory and liquidate assets.
They refuse to sell existing french factory + machinery to a single competitor to enable a competitor to take over market share quickly.
They will sell the factory to one buyer and the machinery to another.
Doesn't make financial sense for the company to equip a competitor.
Company is relocating production facilities back to the US.
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Nothing wrong with that, IMO. What they are doing is the corporate equivalent of a garage sale. If your son had a guitar amp that you hated and you opted to sell it at a garage sale, you would be right to not sell it to your next door neighbor's kid... because it would cause the same loud noise problems in your life.
The point of selling the factory and machinery is to disband a nonprofitable venture... not to be in the business of selling factories and machinery.
