They followed from afar, and with sympathy, the announcement of the acquisition by their employees of the Duralex glass factory in mid-summer. Reminiscent of his own victory, ten years ago, against the multinational Unilever, his Lipton teas and his Elephant infusions. A fight of David against Goliath, often cited as an example in workers’ struggles. “Each story is unique. “We have no lessons to teach.”, It is immediately explained by Olivier Leberquier, from the offices of the former Fralib factory in Gémenos (Bouches-du-Rhône), converted into the Provencal tea and infusion workers’ cooperative society SCOP-TI.
Today he is its president; In 2014 he was a delegate of the CGT. At that time, when the Fralibs had just obtained the right to take over their factory as SCOP after four years of bitter struggle, he declared: “The fight will continue, since we will have to sustain our activity. » Ten years later, they finally get their true victory. that of having “ managed to keep the project going over time”summarize. “We are still here, even though we were assigned to the employment center. [En 2024]We are going to achieve our best turnover in ten years, 30% or 35% more, and we will be profitable, without artifices or external aid, only thanks to our activity. »
Inexhaustible in his passionate description of the company’s project, Nasserdine Aissaoui, who prepares orders placed via the Internet, does not hide anything from the reality of these ten years: “Until today it has been complicated, nothing is easy. » SCOP-TI knew from the acquisition that it was leaving with a serious disadvantage: unlike Duralex, it could not retain the Elephant brand. “It represented a volume of 450 tons, whereas today we are around 300 tons, so it would have been an immediate victory! », explains Olivier Leberquier.
For the employees, the request was all the more legitimate since the brand was born in Marseille, created by the brothers Pétrus and Lazare Digonnet at the end of the 19th century.my century, the herbs (verbena, linden, mint, etc.) then came from the local terroir. Unilever bought the company, which became Fralib (French foods and beverages) in the late 1970s. With the opening of markets, local plants were replaced by plants. “at the end of the world” and the activity was gradually reduced to packaging, until in 2010 Unilever decided to move it to Poland. This leaves 182 employees. This marks the beginning of four years of factory occupation. “In the end we managed to keep the machinesremembers Olivier Leberquier. But when it comes to branding, Unilever hasn’t given up! »
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