Claude Neuschwander

Vocation

French entrepreneur and business executive, who was the patron of Lip during the company's attempt to revive itself in 1974. LIP is a French watch and clock company whose turmoil became emblematic of the conflicts between workers and management in France. In the early 1970s, Neuschwander, then number 2 at the Publicis advertising group and member of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU), agreed to become the factory's manager. LIP became a subsidiary of BSN, and Neuschwander managed to have Antoine Riboud bypass the regular control of weekly accounts. Neuschwander advocated "the death of enterprise capitalism and the advent of finance capitalism" – or, in the words of L'Humanité, the transition from paternalistic capitalism, under Fred Lip, to modern finance capitalism. In the meanwhile, beside the PSU, all the far-left movements supported the LIP self-management experiment. LIP workers took part in the 1973-74 struggle in the Larzac against the extension of a military base (photos). However, tensions increased between the CFDT and the CGT unions. The LIP delegation and the factory management signed the Dole agreement on 29 January 1974. The Compagnie européenne d'horlogerie (European Clockwork Co.), directed by Claude Neuschwander, took control of LIP. Neuschwander had 850 former workers rehired in March, and the strike ended. By December 1974, the conflict appeared to be finished: the workers no longer ran the factory, and all of the employees were rehired. However, in May 1974, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, representing free enterprise, had been elected President of France, with the support of Jacques Chirac. They opposed this union victory at a time when downsizing was happening all over France. The previous Minister of Industrial Development, Jean Charbonnel, testified that Giscard had declared: "LIP must be punished. Let them be unemployed and stay that way. Otherwise they will infect all of society." According to Charbonnel, the employers and Chirac's government had deliberately "assassinated LIP." This was done by confronting the left-wing employer, Neuschwander, and the firm with unforeseen difficulties. Renault, a state enterprise, withdrew its orders, and the Ministry of Industry refused promised funding. In contradiction to the Dôle agreement of January 1974, the commercial court (tribunal de commerce) requested that LIP honour a debt of 6 million Francs owed by the former firm to providers. In 1976, Neuschwander founded Ten, his own consulting firm specializing in economic development and land use planning. He then joined Fnac, where he became general secretary and then general manager in 1980. He then continued to set up various advisory bodies, including in 2003 the rating agency for cities, metropolises and territories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIP_(company) Link to Wikipedia biography (French)