LIP (company) - History

History

In 1807, the Jewish community of Besançon offered a mechanical watch (montre à gousset) to Napoleon. Sixty years later, Emmanuel Lipman and his sons founded a clockwork workshop under the name of Comptoir Lipmann. In 1893 it became the Société Anonyme d'Horlogerie Lipmann Frères (Lipmann Brothers Clock Factory).

The firm launched the Lip stopwatch in 1896. Thereafter Lip became the brand of the company. They built around 2,500 pieces a year. The company launched the first electronic watch in 1952, called "Electronic" (it was not electric because of the presence of a diode). The first models were worn by Charles de Gaulle and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower; in 1948, a T18 was offered to Winston Churchill.

However, in the 1960s, this highly specialized company began to have financial troubles. Fred Lipmann brought the company public in 1967, and Ebauches S.A. (subsidiary of ASUAG, a large Swiss consortium which later became Swatch) took 33% of the shares.

Meanwhile, workers started organizing to improve labor conditions. This proved difficult. Charles Piaget, the son of a clockwork artisan, who had entered the factory in 1946 as a skilled worker, became a representative of the Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens (CFTC, French Confederation of Christian Workers) trade union. He later recalled that during national strikes, only 30 or 40 workers at LIP out of a total of 1200 would go on strike. Those who did strike were listed by the management and called in to explain themselves. Semi-skilled workers on the assembly line were not allowed to talk or move more than 25 centimeters (less than ten inches) during their shifts.

In 1964, the CFTC became the CFDT, a secular trade union. Piaget participated in some meetings of the ACO (Action Catholique Ouvrière, Workers' Catholic Action), and then joined the Union de la gauche socialiste (UGS, Union of the Socialist Left) during the Algerian War (1954–62). The UGS later merged with other organizations to form the Unified Socialist Party (PSU), which included Pierre Mendès-France, a popular left-wing figure who had been President of the Council during the Fourth Republic. During the nationwide unrest of May 1968, the workers at LIP voted to join the general strike.

Fred Lip tried to smooth down the growing discontent. He spoke to the union workers of taylorism (scientific management), and proposed to increase the number of representatives on the comité d'entreprise (works council, the workers' representation in the factory), in order to have younger representatives. Although this was illegal, the union workers agreed, and elections were organized. Although Fred Lip had believed this would allow him more control of the workers, in less than a year all the young representatives joined the CFTC. Fred Lip then submitted a proposal to the inspection du travail (government labor inspection office) which would eliminate all of the sector of the company to which most of the union workers belonged, including Charles Piaget. However, he offered Piaget a promotion, naming him head of the workshop. For the next year, the workers blocked attempts to eliminate the department, opposing those who tried to move the machines out of the factory.

However, Ebauches became the biggest shareholder in 1970, taking control of 43% of the stock. Ebauches then fired 1,300 workers. The next year, the board of directors forced Fred Lip to resign, replacing him with Jacques Saint-Esprit.

LIP built the first French quartz watches in 1973, but had to face increasing competition from the United States and Japan. The firm was forced to start liquidation formalities on April 17, 1973, leading Jacques Saint-Esprit to resign on the same day.

In the following weeks, the struggles at the LIP factory drew a national audience, thus beginning one of the emblematic social conflicts of the era after May 1968. The conflict was to last several years.