PATERNALISM

Paternalism is when the boss takes his workmen’s welfare in his care.
Was Schneider’s in Le Creusot a success or a « stronghold of capitalism crushed by the weight  of the feudal system ? »
        

In parallel with their ideas of  progress and civilisation, the Schneiders gave the greatest importance to social life, and particularly to living conditions. In accordance with the status  of workers, their housing was different. In 1865, the first housing estate with individual housings appeared. The workmen were living behind the Glassworks factory park ; every family was entitled to 22 m² of living space. The foremen owned 50m² , i.e.two rooms. The clerks lived in 75m² , that is to say five rooms. 
Finally, engineers were privileged with a 250 m² living surface pavilion, i.e. 12 rooms. Besides, the Schneiders were afraid of the effects of promiscuity on their workers and clerks, that’s why they gave them gardens to avoid these problems.
Thanks to Adolphe and Eugene Schneider, who built a communal and industrial school in 1837, the children from Le Creusot were able to receive a good education. These elements tend to give an impression of a successful paternalistic management.
Yet paternalism was also a way of handling the labour force better, so that workmen did not dare rebel, for fear of being banished from the city and of having to find new jobs and housings by themselves.
However, in May 1899, a strike broke out : the workers were asking for a rise in wages and better working conditions. They got a prime for a while, but Eugene II decided to take it back from them ; in 1900 a second strike broke out and the first workers’ trade unions were created in Le Creusot: they were called “the reds “; to counter them, unions,  called “ the yellows”,  were put up.

    The Schneiders imposed their personality cult too, particularly in churches. Their portraits were represented near The Christ on the church stained-glass windows, Eugène appeared as Saint Eloi, the patron of workmen, and his second wife as Sainte Barbe. They embodied the employers by “divine right”. In the towns every heir who had been running the firm was represented by a statue.

     In this way, the Schneiders enjoyed an industrial prosperity which lasted for 124 years and which made them one of the most widely organized manufacturing dynasty.