An online petition asks Edouard Philippe to intervene.

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robinletellier / SIPA

A petition which gathered 1,485 signatures in three days asks the former Prime Minister and current mayor of Le Havre Edouard Philippe "to intervene" against the elimination of 295 jobs in a Siemens factory in Le Havre.

"We ask the public authorities and Mr. Edouard Philippe to intervene without delay to obtain from the management of Siemens (...) the immediate end of the redundancy procedures and to find an alternative solution in order to prepare the reconversion of the site", according to the text of the petition posted on the change.org website.

Siemens Energy France announced on September 1 the elimination of "some 300 jobs" out of 560 in Le Havre via the closure of a compressor manufacturing unit for the Dresser Rand brand oil industry.

Pascal Nicod, CGT secretary of the CSE of the factory, specified that the union was not signing this petition because it did not know its initiator.

The promise of a wind turbine factory

At this stage, there is talk of a PSE (job protection plan) presented on September 1 with 295 job cuts out of 560 but no layoffs, he added.

On September 1, Siemens had specified that the employees of the unit which will close would be partly redeployed to the wind turbine plant announced in Le Havre.

Siemens has promised to open a wind turbine plant (blades and nacelle assembly) at the end of 2021 or early 2022, which should generate 750 direct and indirect jobs.

For the signatories of the petition, “it is not up to the employees to pay for the restructuring of the gas and oil sector.

The colossal profits reaped by the shareholders and senior managers of these companies for decades must provide for the necessary energy transition ”.

"Fossil energy is far from dead"

The entourage of the mayor of Le Havre recalled that Edouard Philippe had received the factory unions on Monday and referred to the statements of employees to the local press at the end of this meeting.

“One could imagine, Édouard Philippe did not promise to save the factory.

But (…) he made a commitment to meet the management of Siemens Energy France to relay our way of presenting the situation, ”Pascal Nicod said in

Paris-Normandie

.

"The oil market is volatile and unpredictable, and Dresser Rand has been experiencing difficulties in France for several years," said Siemens Energy France president Samuel Morillon on September 1.

"Fossil energy is far from dead," said Pascal Nicod.

According to him Siemens wants to "relocate" from Le Havre to Duisburg (Germany) and Olean (United States).

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