PARIS – Workers protested Thursday at a Bridgestone tire factory in northern France over the company’s decision to close the plant and lay off its nearly 900 workers, accusing management of using the virus-driven economic crisis as a pretext to ruin livelihoods.Japan-based Bridgestone argues the factory in the town of Bethune was already struggling before the pandemic and is the company’s “least-performing” facility in Europe.
Both unions and the French government denounced the closure, saying the company should have invested in modernizing the plant instead.Bridgestone has received French government aid from a program in recent years aimed at preserving jobs, and received more government funds to keep workers employed during and after this.