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Bengtsfors – a municipality emptied of industry

On March 17, 1999, every six unemployed residents of Bengtsfors lost their jobs.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

March 17, 1999: 860 people were sent home.

Lear Corporation closed down the car seat factory in Bengtsfors.

Without warning.

The site has:

Väner timber went bankrupt: 95 lost their job

Novus Interiör went bankrupt: 50 lost their jobs

Segerström & Svensson will cut 90 positions

On Wednesday, Duni laid off 145 employees.

All workplaces have helped secure Bengtsfors municipality.

It had almost 15.000 inhabitants a few years ago. Today it is over 10.900.

Unemployment is well over 13 per cent, and would be even higher if the authorities did not

hid the real unemployment figures in various course offerings and continuing education courses.

Most of the jobs that disappeared were moved abroad.

Ny Tid has been in Bengtsfors and found globalization.

The gray weather is like a lid over Bengtsfors in Western Sweden. The municipality is about a hour's drive from the Norwegian border. A short hour's drive south, then you come to Trollhättan, Uddevalla, Karlstad; and a little further south Gothenburg.

The municipality lies between a business sector in growth on the Norwegian side, and a thriving industry in the area south of the municipality.

Bengtsfors is also an industrial municipality. For many years, the municipality has had over fifty per cent of the active employees in the manufacturing industry.

That was before globalization and liberalization shattered all dreams of a small and protected society.

On Wednesday, the municipality received its last reminder that we live in a world where the well-being of American pensioners is more important than jobs in a small municipality in Sweden – or where it should be. On Wednesday, 145 out of 540 employees at the Duni factory in Bengtsfors were informed that the company no longer has a job for them. Among the owners of Duni are American pension funds that demand high returns – every year.

This is a message someone in all families in Bengtsfors has received over the last two years. Between 1300 and 1400 people have been laid off due to bankruptcy or slaughter of factories to be rebuilt elsewhere in the world.

The Bengtsfors accident started just over two years ago.

March 17, 1999

On March 17, 1999, Bengtsfors came to a standstill. The management of the municipality received a phone call from Trollhättan. They were asked to attend a meeting at the Swedish headquarters of Lear Corporation. The small entourage from Bengtsfors municipality, led by political and administrative leadership, did not show why they were in such a hurry to get them to Trollhättan – one hundred kilometers from Bengtsfors. They were asked to meet at exactly 13.00 pm the same day.

Lear Corporation management had a brief message to give to the municipality. The factory in Bengtsfors was to be closed down and all fixtures sent out by the municipality. Production was to be moved to Portugal and Thailand. Something was also going to Gothenburg. The factory stopped production immediately. On April 1, the Lear Corporation factory halls in Bengtsfors were empty.

860 people lost their jobs this day in March. Around 700 of them came from Bengtsfors – which has around 6000 inhabitants of working age. Ten percent of the population lost their jobs. In many homes, it was both mother and father.

The municipality's management was paralyzed after receiving the message at the meeting in Trollhättan.

- We were not prepared to receive such a message, and we had no time to discuss the matter together after the meeting was over. When we left the meeting rooms, the press was already in place and we were greeted by journalists, photographers and television people, says City Councilor Mari-Ann Hesselroth. She attended the meeting.

The reactions were powerful and at the same time they had been given evidence of what Lear Corporation felt about a place like Bengtsfors.

- They did not bother to travel up to Bengtsfors to inform us and the employees about the decision. They did not care about the employees or the municipality, which has hosted their factory for ten years, says Mari-Ann Hesselroth.

- For the municipality, it was very important to get on the field early and create a positive belief in the future. We want people living here, and people want to stay here. They have no desire to move to a stressful everyday life in Gothenburg, says Hesselroth.

Decades of car seats

Already in the cars on their way home to Bengtsfors, they started making plans for Lear Corporation. They had no choice. Lear Corporation was not interested in discussing more production in Bengtsfors.

In the heavy factory premises in Bengtsfors, car seats have been sewn and fitted for the last 30 years. First it was Volvo, who after political pressure left the factory in Bengtsfors. Ten years ago, the American company Lear Corporation took over the factory. The task was the same for the employees, who were to produce car seats for Volvo.

Back in Bengtsfors, they met a completely empty city. People stayed home. No one knew what the future would bring.

In the town hall the activity was hectic. The municipal leadership gathered for a crisis meeting, and within a few hours they came up with a plan. The goal was to create 860 new jobs in the municipality in three years. 350 of them were to be created within what the gangsters can best of all, production. 450 were to be created in the service sector. The municipality screamed for caregivers after many educated nurses, nurses, preschool teachers and others had sought happiness in Norway, which offered better wages.

The last 60 positions were to be created within the tourism industry.

- We had to come up with a proposal quickly, and it had to give people a bright spot, says Mari-Ann Hesselroth. The municipality had to quickly find a way out of the situation. Just half an hour after the announcement of the closure, serious and less serious telephones began to arrive in the municipality. Many had ideas and suggestions on how Bengtsfors could get new jobs.

- It became a job just to sort the inquiries. There are an incredible number of fortune hunters who try to profit from the void that arises after such a work stoppage. Most of those who made contact were interested in what the municipality could offer, especially in terms of financial means, says Mari-Ann Hesselroth.

The municipality decided to start Future Bengtsfors. This unit was to look at everyone who wanted to go to the municipality, and what opportunities existed to create new jobs.

After a good start, the project today has no employees, but according to Hesselroth new people are on their way to continue the project.

The professional organizations in the municipality, with Swedish LO at the forefront, feel that the municipality has not completely understood the situation. They think it was wrong to cut the funds for Future Bengtsfors instead of keeping a high level of activity.

New activity

Bengtsfors quickly received support from many who wanted to help them further. Governor Göte Bernhardsson was one of those who came into the picture in the hours after the message came from Lear Corporation. He was to become a key piece in creating new activity in the company's premises.

He joined a group to find new jobs. It turned out that a trip to Uddevalla, which was planned long before the closure of Lear, would be part of the solution. There, the governor visited TWR, or Omninova as it is called today. At the meeting with the management of TWR he voiced the idea that they could add part of the production to Bengtsfors. The management at TWR thought the idea was exciting.

TWR said almost yes at the hour to start the production of taxi buses. Production would require employing between 400 and 500 people from 2000 to 2003.

Bengt-Göran Blomqvist was one of those who lost his job at Lear Corporation. He was the manager of the club and had suspected closure for a few days. But the final message from management did not arrive until 17 a.m. on March XNUMX. It was a terrible day for Blomqvist and his colleagues. People were crying openly. That the Lear management obviously had violated Swedish law on information duty was of little comfort. People stayed home and struggled with the emotions.

Today, Bengt Göran Blomqvist is staff manager at Omninova / TWR.

The first task was to find 180 people out of the 860 who became unemployed when Lear took the machines and traveled to Portugal. They were trained, and one year after Lear disappeared, the first taxis were ready. It went so fast that even before the official opening, they had produced and exported 20 taxis to Japan.

Omninova, as the company is called today, looks bright for the future. They expect to employ about 200 people next year, so that one year before the plan will be up to about 400 employees.

Bengt-Göran Blomqvist is optimistic. Only we get enough buses sold, so it goes well.

Currently, they do not produce too much; The plan is to produce eight taxis and one bus per year. day. But over the next few years, the factory is expected to produce between 2000 and 3000 buses and taxis. What is special about the Omninova product is that they are disability friendly. The whole car can be lowered so that a wheelchair driver can get into the bus without the help of others.

It wasn't that easy

Bengts residents hoped that after the Lear disappearance, they could begin to look ahead and rebuild the community. It looked bright for half a year. Then came the next bankruptcy. Vänern Timber had to send close to 100 employees home. New owners have taken over and will start production there when the market opens for the products they can supply. So far it has not happened.

Novus Interiør, which Lear Corporation was launching as a patch on the wound when wrapped, also went bankrupt. Lear Corporation, which had promised to purchase Novus products, abruptly withdrew from this agreement. The reason was that Novus was too expensive.

In March, another of the large workplaces in the municipality, Duni, announced that they would dismiss 145 people from a workforce of 544.

What Bengtsfors has experienced is that a city like Oslo would lose 35.000 jobs just with the Lear relocation. All closures correspond to the fact that in two years Oslo would lose about 50.000 jobs.

In Bengtfors, individuals along with the unions would try to highlight that they felt overrun by Lear. Therefore, a demonstration was held in the city on March 24, 1999. The evening was called the Night of Wrath. Almost everyone in town showed up. Around 10.000 people took part in the march that went from Lear to the city center. They demonstrated against Volvo and Lear Corporation.

When the Duni message came in March this year, people gathered again in a demonstration. This time between 2500 and 3000 people arrived in the city with 10.900 inhabitants. A few years ago, the population was close to 15.000.

We don't give up

In a meeting room at Duni we are allowed to meet two of the academically active people at Duni. Pia Ågren, who is the deputy in the Pappers union at the factory, and Pär Ericsson, manager in LO in Bengtfors. The management at Duni has allowed us to talk to the two inside the factory area.

- They are a little scared of the press at the moment, says Pär Ericsson. The background for the strained relationship with the media is that the union took over the direction when it was to be announced that people were to be fired on Duni.

- The management informed us about the situation and what they had plans for. We did not get a mouthful, and thought that it was so serious when over a hundred people had to be fired that we had to pass on the message. And it became a heavenly life, says Ericsson.

The management in Duni had intended to direct themselves, but the union went out to the press with the message that the management would lay off around 100 people. The Duni management tried firefighting, but when they announced that they "will streamline and restructure to improve profitability and reduce some overcapacity," it turned out that the union had been careful with its spill. 120 on the floor had to go and 35 middle managers would also be spared.

Pia Ågren has been employed at Duni for 21 years. She has had a tough time in recent weeks as one of the participants in the negotiations with the management. It takes to be forced to name those who will lose their jobs.

- We have tried our best to limit the cuts to include as few as possible. We have persuaded the management not to dismiss more than around 100 in total. But in any case, the management will lay off a large number of employees. This certainly affects some of those who were also fired at Lear. Some of these got jobs at Duni, and now they are out of work again. And we can hardly escape the fact that in some families both father and mother lose their jobs during the year, says Pia Ågren.

- It has always been the case that if you got a job at Duni, then you were guaranteed a job until you had to retire. I think and feel strongly for all my co-workers who now have to leave. Especially those who got a permanent job after they had to leave Lear exactly two years ago, says Pia Ågren.

No future

While many people are dreading the Wednesday when Duni announces who has to go, some ladies at Twinnings meet at the pedestrian street in town. A small cafe run by Marie-Therese and Ziad Fawaz. Marie-Therese worked at Lear. She was lucky to have the opportunity to work with the man at their cafe. It's different for the around ten ladies who meet every Tuesday at Marie-Therese. They all worked at Lear, and most have been without a job since. Today, Ylva Edvardsson, Ann-Britt Augustsson, Anita Marsell and Elvira Carlsson have made the trip to Twinnings. Every other Tuesday at five they meet at Marie-Therese, and they have been doing so since they were laid off at Lear.

- Yes, we recognize ourselves in what the employees at Duni are now experiencing. It looks dark at the moment. There are no jobs at all, and some of us also have age against us, says Anita Marsell. She was 15 years old at Lear, and has no great hope of getting back to work.

Ann-Britt Augustsson says it's good to come out and meet old workmates.

- Many of us have no education beyond primary and secondary school. It is not easy to get something when you have not done anything but work at Lear all your life. She was 14 years old at Lear, and thought it was a safe workplace she could have until she retired.

Ylva and Elvira had a short-term job at Novus Interiør, which went bankrupt. Since November, they have been completely unemployed.

- Some joined the factory in Gothenburg, but it is not so easy for everyone to move, says Ylva Edvardsson. She was 25 years at Lear, and does not feel she can move to find a new job.

- We have the family and our whole life here in the area. It is not easy to move when you have been here so long.

Elvira Carlsson, who was 11 years old at Lear, also does not feel that she can move.

- It is especially the young people who move from Bengtsfors. For us without education, it becomes difficult to find something new.

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