Weil's rise as France's dominant men's clothing manufacturer was accompanied by recurring labor conflict. On June 17, 1936, nearly 400 strikers blockaded all three of the company's production sites in Besançon. After the upheavals of May 1968, walkouts continued for years, particularly over piecework wages, with workers establishing a weekly Wednesday picket line. Testimony collected from former employees in 1975 alleged that a company boss punched some strikers, threatened others with a blowtorch, and allowed supervisors to carry batons. Those allegations come from worker testimony rather than an independently adjudicated finding, but they convey the coercive atmosphere remembered by employees during the firm's most contentious period.
The conflict resurfaced as Weil modernized and shifted production abroad. In 1987, while employing roughly 1,200 people, the company announced a restructuring plan that provoked further walkouts. By the mid-1990s, production had increasingly moved to Tunisia, Hungary, and Romania: in 1995, only about a quarter of output remained in France. Management cited lower overseas production costs and rising imports, while unions demanded the return of roughly 400 relocated jobs. The result was a devastating contraction of the Besançon workforce, with 182 jobs eliminated in July-August 1995 and only six employees retained at the main site, followed by the closure of additional facilities. The episode became part of the wider French debate over deindustrialization, subcontracting, and the human cost of apparel globalization.
