Bull workers want French govt to use muscle against bosses

Workers at Bull are calling on the French government to take action against the French company's restructure plans.

The Bull workers reckon Bull management's scheme to split the company in two and sell off assets amounts to just breaking up the business.

FT.com quotes Robert Bossier, a CGT union official representing the Bull employees, saying: "We think the management has no real and worthwhile projects to offer."

The government owns 16.3 per cent of Bull and that's why the unions want it to intervene. The company's workforce has been cut from 46,000 to 18,000 over the last 12 years. Over the Christmas holiday's staff were told that 10 per cent of them would lose their jobs by 2002.

The company has warned that the groups 2000 loss would be more than E100 million ($94 million). An earlier forecast said it would move into profit. ®