Navigation for Insight

France, the second largest economy in the Eurozone, has slipped back into recession. Lucy Ash visits two tyre factories in the depressed northern town of Amiens. One has adopted flexible working practices and, for the time being , its 940 jobs are safe. The other has refused to sign up to the new shift pattern and the factory is slated for closure next year.

Can the French people preserve their industrial base, as well as the generous welfare benefits and working practices they hold so dear?

BBC image: The stickered sign alludes to workers' long struggle to keep the factory open

Listen here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p019qqpd