Open letter from Philippe de Villiers re SKF

[Rochej]

Open letter to Mr Tom Johnstone, Chairman and Managing Director of SKF International

Dear Mr Johnstone,

The board of the SKF Group, which you chair, has just announced without any warning its decision to close its factory located at Fontenay-le-Comte in the Vendée region of France, sacrificing without the slightest scruple the livelihood of 380 employees, as well as a large number of subcontractors, and causing the deepest distress to 500 families.

United by the same sense of anger, the citizens of the Vendée region wish as one to protest against the decision, which we consider to be profoundly inhuman and immoral.

Despite the fact that the SKF Group made a profit of more than 460 million euros in the last financial period, it has decided to offshore its production to low-wage countries, without any social or environmental protection, and make the most of human misery.

How can the SFK Group act in such a manner, when it states in its "charter" that it is "economically, socially and ethically responsible" and claims to make environmental protection its priority? Such an attitude casts serious, legitimate doubt on the sincerity of the group's commitments and the information it publishes.

You must try to understand the hardship you are causing and the deep distress of the employees, who have devoted their lives for decades to the prosperity of SKF and now rightly feel betrayed.

The factory of Fontenay-le-Comte represents less than 1% of the personnel of SKF. Far from jeopardising the group, giving the factory a future would be a gesture in favour of all those who depend on it for their livelihood, and would save your credibility and public image.

We invite you to come to the Vendée, where your employees and their elected representatives are ready to meet you. We invite you to reconsider your decision to close the SKF factory in Fontenay-le-Comte.

The 600,000 citizens of the Vendée region all feel they are employees of SKF; they will fight to the finish to prevent any such offshoring, and they expect an answer and a gesture of courage in keeping with the values SKF ostensibly supports.

Yours sincerely,

Philippe de Villiers

President of the General Council of the Vendée

Page-sized open letter in the Financial Times, Tuesday July 7.

[totty]

de Villiers is living in cloud cuckoo land

[Loiseau2]

I quite agree!

While feeling extremely sorry for the Fontenay workforce, I cannot see SKF reversing its decision.

I hadn't realised that there had been a full-page ad in the FT.
I have been surprised enough at the posters we are currently seeing on the Vendee's bus shelters.
(For those reading this from outside the Vendee, instead of a glossy image extolling the month's most prestigious happenings in the departement, we currently have just a white background bearing the words: "600,000 Vendeens / 600,000 SKF". )

Angela

[totty]

How on earth will they encourage inward investment if this kind of thing happens?

[Rottiesrule]

I had worked for SKF for over 25 years beginning in 1982. I can tell you that SKF is NOT the same company today that it was back in the 80's and 90's. They are uncaring, profit seeking assholes that no longer put the employee first. Profits are first, everything else is last. This is only the beginning of the SKF closures. They will not stop until all manufacturing is either in Sweden, Germany or 3rd world countries. It's very unfortunate, because SKF used to be a great place to work. Now they only promote assholes, which are promoted by upper management assholes. Leaving SKF was the best thing to happen to me, I am sure the people of Vendee will feel that way also once they are employed by new companies.