LIP (company)
LIP is a French watch and clock company whose turmoil became emblematic of the conflicts between workers and management in France.
The LIP factory, based in Besançon in eastern France, was having financial problems in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and management decided to try to close it. However, after strikes and a highly publicized factory occupation in 1973, LIP became worker-managed. All the fired employees were rehired by March 1974, but the firm was liquidated again in the spring of 1976. This led to a new struggle, called "the social conflict of the 1970s" by the daily newspaper Libération.
Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT) union leader Charles Piaget led the strike. The Unified Socialist Party (PSU), which included former Radical Pierre Mendès-France, was then in favor of autogestion (workers' self-management).
Read more about LIP (company): History, 1973: Beginning of The Strike and Demonstrations, An Experience in Workers' Self-management (1973-74), End of The First Conflict, 1976: The Second Movement, LIP in The 1980s and The 1990s, Famous Models
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