Les Papillons Blancs de Roubaix-Tourcoing

CAT stands for “Centre d’Aide par le Travail”.

The law points out two objectives of the CATs:1. professionalization of the disabled,2. medical and social support.

It is not a mentioned goal to outsource the disabled people to the first labour market.

In addition to the governmental support which steadily decreases and now makes 2/3 of thebudget, the CAT is allowed to gain profit - though there are restrictions for what kind of purposesit may be used.

The integration into the first labour market is a lot easier for physically disabled persons than formentally handicapped. In reality nobody leaves the CAT.There are a number of reasons for that:

§ At the CAT people gain a well-regulated income (about 6.000 F; income-tax free), which is alot more than they could earn at the first labour market. Consequently the workers are afraidof gaining less money.

§ Furthermore the workers are afraid of changing to the first labour market because theyexperience the change itself as frightening and there is the threat of losing self-confidence.

§ In a lot of cases the possibilities of adaptation are deficient.§ It is not possible to return to the CAT, because there is a long waiting list (about 600 persons

who come from IME or IMPro). The people have to be admitted regarding their position onthe list; it is not possible to select someone. So it usually takes 6 to 7 years until an applicantis admitted to the CAT. The problem is that until then most people have already forgottenwhat they have learned during their job training.

CAT du Recueil

This special workshop is located at Villeneuve d´Ascq and is administered by Alain Couture. Atthe moment it employs 120 workers in the different packing teams.Working time is 7 hours per day.Since the facilities are already 25 years old the teams will be removed to a building which willsoon be raised.On the area of the CAT there is a 400 square meter sized warehouse.

1. Paint-sprayersThe workshop packs about 4.000 paint-sprayers per day for a paint-producing company named“Theodore”. The contract exists since 12 years and will last for another 1 or 2 years. Theproducts will be completely made of plastic soon. Therefore it is necessary to buy a newmachine.

2. Sponges and microfibre-clothsThe workshop has a contract with a company called “Spontex” which is prolonged every year.The contract is in the second year now and it is expected to run for another two years. At thebeginning the workshop only managed to pack 30 % of the required daily amount (about 400pieces); today 12.000 pieces per day are being reached.

3. SocksThe workshop packs about 15.000 pairs of socks a month for “Quicksilver”. It is a completelynew contract which runs for one year. Right now the workshop is in the testing period.

4. CardsAbout 2.000 UNICEF-cards are packed per day. For this procedure 10 to 15 cards are gatheredin a package and afterwards this is put into a display-device.The testing period for this order was during the last year. One expects the contract to beprolonged a few times for another three months each.

5. Clinical SupplyFrom the company “Pharmacopain” the workshop has an order for packing about 8.000 sticksand 10.000 clips per day. Therefore there are 16 to 24 workers occupied in a “white room”. Themain contract runs a year each and was made with the CAT Roitelet.

In periods with only few orders they work on smaller requests (for example packing of bags for“Adidas!). Usually for every new order one day of training is being calculated; afterwards theworkers only make mistakes in 1 % of the cases.

CAT Rocheville

The CAT Rocheville is located at Croix and is directed by Marc Godvin. It consists of two bigareas: the work area and the educational department.

The work area occupies 8 groups that are each supervised by one person; the “Moniteurs”.They have the tasks to listen, organise, control and form.

The CAT Rochville occupies 136 persons in the different work groups; some of them only workpart time.

Next to the workshop one can find a restaurant area. 26 people are employed at 4 locations.

The educational tasks are performed by one social worker who co-operates with 4 governesses.One of them looks after four work area groups, the second for 3 groups, the third for one groupand the fourth for the restaurant area.

The governesses have two tasks: “animation” (short-term as well as long-term activities likepublishing a newspaper or gymnastics). They also serve as persons to whom the workers relatemost closely. They assist the “Moniteurs”, make suggestions for job rotation, inform and so on.

In addition to that the CAT employs a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist, who offer short-term therapy. In cases where this is not sufficient, the client has to continue the therapy at anexternal institution. A nurse looks after injuries and helps people with sexual, hygienical andhealth problems.

The work groups are not as specialised as those at the CAT Recueil.

Group 1 produces 3.000-4.000 fastenings for a company called “Sclessens”. They vary in lengthand position of the snap-fasteners, so that the production needs to adapt to customer requests.Unfortunately, it was not possible to find out, how often they change.

Another order the group works on is the assembling of CD-boxes for a company called “PointSoft”. A booklet and either 1, 2 or 3 CDs are being put into the boxes.

The third task is the cutting of rubber tubes used for fishbowls ordered by a company named“Laboratoires Riga”, a big supplier for pet shops.

Group 2 also works on an order for “Riga”. They put dog-bones into bags, seal and label them.

Moreover the people in this group work on the folding of UNICEF-cards and put them into smallbags; ten in each one.

Group 3 also works on the assembling of the CD-boxes.

Besides they label board-boxes; the preparatory work for the fourth group.

Group 4 assembles cosmetics for the brand “Corinne de Farme” (“Laboratoires Sarbec”). At themoment they are packing Mickey-Mouse-sets with shower gel and refill.

The workshop has a contract for packing 7.200 little boxes with different contents (Disneyfigures) per day. A former order of this customer included the assembling of 200 pallets with207 parts. For this sort of work the customer provides a sample, they use as an instruction.

Group 5 works with non-deliverable “Bernard”-catalogues.

They are sorted on the basis of 2 codes: the reference-number and the customer-code. The firstone shows if the catalogue is outdated; in these cases it will be thrown away. In the cases acustomer-code returns twice, the customer will be deleted from the list. The customer-codes areregistered in a Works-table, saved and sent via Internet (5.000 registrations per day).

Group 6 assembles samples of carpets for the company “Flipo”.

For this purpose they cut big bolts of carpet into little squares. Afterwards they paste them intocatalogues considering the texture as well as the colour sequence.For the moment the workshop has the order to produce 150 catalogues for 9 different series.The controlling is done with the help of a sample catalogue.

If there was even the smallest mistake, the customer would withdraw the order.

Moreover samples of cloths for the “Deren”-company are being produced. For this productcloths-squares are pasted into a catalogue.

For this order it is also necessary to consider the colour sequence.The names of the colours are pasted into the catalogue at the CAT Roitelet. The customer alsoprovides samples with wholes, which are used by the controllers in order to look for mistakes.Indeed they only find a minimum of errors.

Another order is the packing of microfibre cloths into envelopes which are already prepared fordelivery.There are different colours and types; each package contains a cloths of the “Sky”-type, one ofthe “NSP”-type, a list with prices, a pair of microfibre-gloves as well as a letter.

In group 7 a deaf-mute worker covers wooden rods with a blue rubber-coating. They then will bepacked into packages of 50 pieces; 50 packages per week.

Besides that the cosmetic sets that group 4 has assembled are shrink-wrapped in this area.

Group 8 is also occupied with the sorting of “Bernard”-catalogues and with the assembling ofCD-boxes. Additionally, the workers repack bolts of yarn from a no-name labeled wrapping into aDMC-brand label-packing.

The UNICEF-cards are manually folded.

For “Les 3 Suisses” cloths- and colour-sample catalogues are assembled. Most of the timetemplates are being used; sometimes the customers only give their requests orally.

There is a solidarity between the groups; if one group is not able to fulfil a contract the othergroups will give support.

The CAT Rocheville mainly works for three big customers:

1. “Laboratoires Riga”is a pet shop supplier which prolongs his one year lasting contracts since 15 years; theworkshop packs 400 different articles

2. “Bernard”this customer’s orders vary with the season; the workshop has requests three or four times ayear; at those times an amount of totally 25.000 catalogues has to be handeled

3. “Laboratoires Sarbec”provides a contract since five or six years; 50 different products need to be packed

CAT du Roitelet

The CAT du Roitelet consists of two locations at Tourcoing and Neuville and is directed byPhilippe Ormillien.

At Tourcoing there are about 180 employed persons; at Neuville, which is the smaller location,only 60.

In a print-office birthday- and wedding-cards are being manufactured. This includes the lay-outas well as the cutting of paper and the printing by Offset- and older printing-machines(“Heidelberg”). Part of the print-office is accessible to the public; the customers can makeindividual requests there.

The heavily disabled workers who can only work on a low level take care of simple tasks likepasting on Barcode-labels (“Les 3 Suisses”), unwinding bolts of yarn (“Cousin”) or packingfleece-ribbons (“Nigal”).These works are done by three work groups in a large room.The unwinding of bolts of yarn is done for producers of extremely hard-wearing yarns. They givethis order to prevent that their recipe becomes public. The unwinding is done by three machines;one is a prototype on the basis of that the others are constructed.

In this area the jobs change weekly.

In another room the workers wind yarn for yarn- and cloths-samples. They produce 200-300pieces per machine and day.

Additionally they assemble samples of cloths.

These sorts of orders are done for customers like the companies “DMC”, “UTT”, “Decathlon”,“Auchon” and “Bruneel”.

In a special dust-free room pharmacological products are assembled. The 40 workers who areoccupied in this area are supervised by three “Moniteurs”.“Macopharma” is the biggest customer of the CAT’s (20 % of the income).

The workers possess multiple abilities so that they can be employed at different areas and workon several tasks. Before a new product is implemented, the workers are individually trained.The production is adapted to the customers requests.

Another department provides a machine to fold UNICEF-cards.

An order for the productions of board boxes (“Gheysen”) had to be passed to the “atelierprotegé”, because the CAT just accepted an UNICEF-order and therefore did not have anycapacities left.

Especially for the UNICEF-order a special table was constructed. It spins with constant speed.Nevertheless people with different degrees of disability can work on it together for it is possibleto miss out certain compartments.

In a separated area the workers assemble lamps for a company called “Soleil Enterieur”.

The production of pedagogic material had to be stopped because of the hard businesscompetition. There were competitors who offered their products on a lower price-level – withdeficits in quality, though.

CAT de Wattrelos

The CAT at Wattrelos is directed by Claudette Desmarescaux. Unfortunately it was only possibleto visit it after the workers had already left.

In the sewing department 14 disabled persons are employed (two come from an “atelierprotegé”). They for example manufacture headrest-coats, blankets and pillow-cases for thecustomer “Corsair”.

300 wax table cloths per person and day are being sewed for a company called “Renaufil”.

Besides that the area manufactures clothes for gardeners and sew flags (“BHL”) as well as bagsof jute for spices (“Piron”). Furthermore the department sews reflecting material and signs onjackets for ambulance drivers. Moreover a qualitiy check for “Tissel” is carried out.The sewing department of the CAT Wattrelos is registered at the Yellow Pages and acquires alot of orders this way.

In another section of the workshop the workers pack vacuum cleaner bags in packages of teneach and tubes for the customer “Westaflex”.

The workshop owns a machine which allows the production of different shaped and sized plasticbags for the company “Plastinor”.

The brand “Leroy Merlin” ordered the packing of nails, screws and so on. 22 workers assembleabout 50.000 boxes per week.

The wood shop produces for example smaller amounts of beer-boxes and show-cases. Thework changes with the customers requests.

The CAT Wattrelos keeps intensive contact with the other CATs.