This article is an extract from The Guardian Weekly. It was published the 15th August 2008.
Aubade is a luxury lingerie firm and was bought by Calida, a Swiss Company. They were two Aubade factories in France: one in La Trimouille and another in St Savin. The site of production in La Trimouille was closed in 2007 so 134 women lost their job and 100 of them went to work to St Savin. This site of production was relocated in Tunisia.

Women who lost their job are unskilled so it should be hard for them to find another job, however, according to Calida, 66% of them find a new job. This number was contradicted by the local government office in Montmorillon (where most of the population is over 60 years old). Making luxury underwear is hard that’s why we can note big psychological damages on women who worked for Aubade:
- Sales dropped by 20%.
- Some worker prefers stay at home instead of doing car sharing scheme.
- Very bad relationship between workers.
Workers say that it’s Felix Sukbager’s fault (the Swiss owner and CEO of Calida). They don’t blame Tunisians workers for the relocation but him.

In the new site of production in Tunisia women are exploited, it’s in a very poor part of the country to make easier the workers’ exploitation. If they don’t want to lose their job they have to sign a new contract every 6 month and they can join the permanent staff after 4 years. Working conditions are inacceptable; they work in dirtiness which provokes disease. Nowadays, Aubade is not proud of the Tunisian site which makes lingerie of poorer quality than French