About 30 employees: Inside a subsidiary of the ETAM group who came by bus from the north of France, protested on Tuesday in front of the headquarters of the Lingeriemark in Clichy (Hauts-deine) against the closure of their location, of which 55 jobs are threatened.
Under the windows of the headquarters of the ETAM group, the demonstrators unrolled: interrogation tapes with a textile cover: “We tailor models, not personnel”, “to fire us is outrageous” or “Etam pulls us out”.
With underwear and swimsuits that they proudly wore over their clothes, about 30 employees came: inside of the “Tech Center”, a design office based in Marcq-en-baroeul, a suburb of Lille, by bus to protest against the closure of this subsidiary of the ETAM group announced on March 18, of which the 55 jobs are threatened.
“It closes a whole French know-how,” complains Claudine Coppens, 51-year-old sectional of the northern French innovation location.
Florence Manceau, fashion designer, came to Etam in 1996, left the company for some time before she was brought back to the “Tech Center” in March 2024. “You hired six new people last year, although they ultimately do a social plan. We don’t understand that,” she told the AFP and also pointed out “ridiculous amounts for the transfer (…)”.
“The group clearly made a difficult but necessary decision for the future of her work,” commented Marie Schott, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from the Etam brand and President of the Tech Center. She assured that she understands the expressed “anger” and hoped to “find a cheap solution that everyone satisfies”.
At the request of the AFP, she referred to a “tightening of the market conditions” for clothing and lingerie with “inflation and falling purchasing power of households, which led to a general slowdown in sales” in the industry.
The design office, which opened in 2017, operates sample creation and patronage, “an activity that only makes 2 percent of the products from ETAM,” explains Schott, the rest is bought as a “finished products”.
“It is a disaster, many textile companies go under. The professions are dead, it is cheaper in Asia,” complains Elsa Lehman, 28 years old, at Etam for three years, from the rally in Clichy.
The deadline for the submission of the social plan is set on May 19.
The Etam Group employs 5,700 people worldwide: inside, including 3,930 in France, says Schott.
This article was used with digital tools translated.
Fashionunited uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the translation of articles and improve the end result. They help us make the international reporting of fashionunited a German -speaking readership quickly and comprehensively accessible. Articles that have been translated using AI-based tools are read and carefully edited by our editor: Correcting inside before they are published. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me by email to [email protected]