2023-11-04 22:21:28
The CFDT union representative of the Lip watch factory Charles Piaget (right) and the general secretary of the CFDT Metallurgy Federation Jacques Chérèque (center), during a press conference in Paris on April 15, 1976 after the filing for bankruptcy of the European Watchmaking Company. AFP
Working legend, emblematic figure of the fight of Lip, this watchmaking company from Besançon, in the 1970s, Charles Piaget died on November 4, 2023 at the age of 95, announced the mayor of Besançon, Anne Vignot. Despite himself, this calm and shy man, who was reluctant to put himself forward, was the symbol of a unique experience of self-management in France.
Born July 23, 1928 in Besançon, Charles Piaget barely knew his mother and lived alone with his father, Fritz Piaget, a watchmaker and repairer, capable of assembling a complete watch, until the latter’s death in 1943. He was then taken in by a working-class family, the Ubbialis, who provided him with a very religious education. He obtained his CAP and an industrial teaching certificate in June 1946. Two months later, he was hired as a mechanic at Lip, the largest watch manufacturer in Besançon. The beginnings are rough. “It took me a year before I could buy pants and a jacket,” he will tell. On the first day of his employment, he joined the CFTC union. Then he did his military service, a period where he was more on the right, before returning to Lip. The working week is then seventy hours: “When we went back down to forty-eight hours, in the 1960s, he said, I remember that we had the impression of a complete fall from work, of being idle. »
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The young Piaget is very religious and gets involved in the activities of his parish. In 1953, he married Annie Billot, with whom he had six children. In 1956, the couple acquired land on which the family would build their house. Charles Piaget tries to reconcile professional and family life. In 1953, he dragged his feet to get on the CFTC list – ” I did not want, confia-t-il, preferring to have a quiet life » – and becomes a staff representative then elected to the works council. The following year, he joined the Catholic Workers’ Action (ACO) with his wife and actively campaigned against the Algerian war. “It’s at the ACO, he will explain, that we reflected on the world of the poorest, on injustice, and that we tried to see how it was possible to live from Jesus Christ. »
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A very good worker, he was promoted to technician in 1957 then, in 1961, to foreman. At Lip, he leads numerous conflicts, often with the CGT, over wages, working hours or working conditions. He joined the United Socialist Party (PSU) from its creation in 1960. He participated, in 1967, in the strike at Rhodia, a textile factory, occupied for the first time since 1936. A conflict heralding May 68 when the strike at Lip will lead, despite differences with the CGT, to the creation of a “workers’ collective”.
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