French unions protest tire factory closure amid virus crisis

PARIS (AP) — Workers are protesting at a Bridgestone tire factory in northern France over the company’s decision to close the plant and lay off its nearly 900 workers. Workers accuse management of using the virus-driven economic crisis as a pretext to ruin livelihoods. Japan-based Bridgestone argues the factory in the town of Bethune was already struggling before the pandemic and is the company’s “least-performing” facility in Europe. Both unions and the French gove