Remind me not to open a factory in Belgium any time soon...

[roosterjuicer]

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2013/03/breaking-up-is-expensive-to-do-ford-finds-out/#more-481753

Thoughts?

[RacingManiac]

Seems normal....companies with European workforce deals with this all the time...my company have people that works for them in EU for sales that we can't justify letting go, as while his work load at this point is quite low, keeping him around doing less work is cheaper than letting him go...

[roosterjuicer]

Seems normal....

That seems crazy to me. But if that's par for the course I guess its buyer beware.

I would love to see the financial model they used to determine it was cheaper to close the plant than keep it open.

[jcp123]

In my readings, particularly of The Economist, a mildly liberal British weekly, this is one of the major factors they cite as being a damper for Europe's economic competitiveness. IIRC France is reputed to be the worst offender in this category. Labour unions are relatively weak, but working folks enjoy very strong government protections. Read up on some of the French auto industry struggles and France's spat with ArcelorMittal.

[Ferrer]

While it is true that there economic compensations to be paid to workers in Europe if you fire them (altough those are progressively decreasing (at least in Spain) these article sounds to me very biased against labour laws in Europe.

I personally don't know of anyone with a normal job who got anywhere close to a $200,000 severance payment...

[RacingManiac]

CEO of U.S. Tire Company Gets into Fight with All of France | TIME.com (http://world.time.com/2013/02/21/ceo-of-u-s-tire-company-gets-into-fight-with-all-of-france/)

There was that earlier this year also...

[Matra et Alpine]

and of course from FACTS quoted in the article rather than that idiots US-centric opinion .... "French workers among the most productive in the world in terms of GDP per hours"

The BIG advantage of holding on to people with skills in difficult times is that when things improve those companies who have retained skill and experience recover quicker.
That idiot will get cheap tyres from China and in 10 years time wonder why his US tIre company has gone the same way as ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_automobile_manufacturers_of_the_Un ited_States :)

[roosterjuicer]

CEO of U.S. Tire Company Gets into Fight with All of France | TIME.com (http://world.time.com/2013/02/21/ceo-of-u-s-tire-company-gets-into-fight-with-all-of-france/)

There was that earlier this year also...

Haha I was going to post this...classic. "You can keep your so called 'workers'".