WORLD BRIEFING / FRANCE
An auto parts factory in northern France was closed after employees angry about job losses ransacked offices and prompted new concern about increasingly violent worker protests.
A French court had rejected a motion brought by employees of a factory run by Germany’s Continental AG to block the plant’s planned 2010 closure. Citing the steep drop in demand in the automobile sector, Continental announced in March its plans to shutter the factory in Clairoix, north of Paris. The plant employs 1,120 people.
Workers responded to the ruling by smashing windows and destroying equipment at the factory and regional administrative offices in nearby Compiegne.
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