Factory closures and reports to the families of steelworkers in Longwy during the 1980s

Abstract

Many factories were closed in the Longwy steelmaking region in the late 1970s and in the first half of the 1980s. Workers' struggles in 1979-1980 and again in 1984 made it a symbol of working-class resistance with a significant and lasting national impact. It also became a pioneering site for experimenting with "retraining" programs: "skills development leave, skills assessments, and workforce planning." The mid-1980s also saw the "second explosion in education." The "80% baccalaureate pass rate policy" gradually translated into increasingly greater access to higher education for children of working-class backgrounds. Our research (Deshayes 1995, 2014) helps to situate the relationship to knowledge and educational certification among steelworkers' families within this historical context. The changing relationship with school already affected parents, albeit unequally across different social classes. Their children's educational paths, over just a few years, demonstrate the growing and unequal influence of school. A study of the final years of a vocational school in the steel industry reveals how transformations in salaried employment, the increasing importance of formal schooling, and the conflicting socialization patterns developed within the steel industry all interact.