Etam: employees rally against site closure threatening 55 jobs

Approximately 30 employees from a subsidiary of the Etam group, travelling by bus from the north, protested on Tuesday in front of the lingerie brand's headquarters in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine) against the closure of their site, which threatened 55 jobs.

Beneath the windows of the Etam group's headquarters (Etam, Undiz, Maison 123, Livy, Ysé), the demonstrators unfurled banners with textile-themed slogans: “We cut patterns, not staff”, “Sacking us is cheeky” and “Etam strips us bare”.

Dressed in underwear and swimwear worn proudly over their clothes, around 30 employees from the “Tech Center”, a design office based in Marcq-en-Baroeul, on the outskirts of Lille, travelled by bus to protest against the closure of this Etam group subsidiary, which was announced on March 18 and threatened 55 jobs.

“It's an entire French skill set that's being shut down,” lamented Claudine Coppens, a 51-year-old pattern maker at the northern innovation site.

Florence Manceau, a pattern maker, joined Etam in 1996, left the company for a while, before being called back in March 2024 “to work at the Tech Center”. “They hired six new people last year, yet ultimately, they're implementing a redundancy plan. We don't understand,” she told AFP, also noting “derisory (...) redeployment amounts”.

“The group has clearly made a difficult decision, but one that is necessary for the future of its business,” commented Marie Schott, chief executive officer of the Etam brand and president of the Tech Center. She asserted that she understood the “anger” expressed and hoped to “find a favourable outcome that can satisfy everyone”.

When questioned by AFP, she cited a “tightening of market conditions” in the clothing and lingerie sector, with “inflation and a fall in household purchasing power, which has led to an overall slowdown in sales” in the sector.

The design office, which opened in 2017, handled sampling and pattern making, “an activity that now accounts for only 2 percent of Etam's products”, explained Schott, with the remainder being purchased as “finished products”.

“It's a massacre, many textile companies are collapsing. The trades are dead, it's cheaper in Asia,” lamented Elsa Lehman, 28, who has been with Etam for three years, from the demonstration in Clichy.

The deadline for submitting the redundancy plan is set for May 19.

The Etam group has 5,700 employees worldwide, including 3,930 in France, according to Schott.