Belfort (AFP)

After weeks of tough negotiations under the watchful eye of Bercy, General Electric employees in Belfort have approved by a large majority Monday a new proposal from management to reduce from 792 to 485 the number of jobs eliminated by a Social plans.

This proposal, approved in the morning on a show of hands, requires, in return, an annual savings plan of 12 million euros, according to unions CFE-CGC and South, organizers of this consultation.

On Friday, when the gas turbine production plants had been blocked by employees for the last ten days, GE management had put two new social options on the table originally announced on May 28: the first planned to reduce 111 the job cuts, the second of 307, with this "plan of cost reductions and improvement of the performance of the site".

According to this second scenario adopted on Monday, the total workforce of GE Belfort's gas turbine production site will increase to 1,275 employees by the end of 2020.

- "Plebiscite" -

Spokesman of the inter-union CFE-CGC / SUD, amputated since the weekend of the CGT who slammed the door, Philippe Petitcolin welcomed the result of the vote, a "wide plebiscite of employees present" that will to allow the unions to enter into negotiations with the management around the new version of the social plan.

"The major advance is that there is an industrial project that will also be negotiated by the end of the year," he stressed, emphasizing the "objective" that is "to have a maximum of unconstrained departures".

"We have made a lot of progress over the past ten days, but I have never lost confidence," said Francis Fontana, South manager.

The industrial project, which would restore Belfort's status as GE's global decision center in gas turbines, will be discussed by the end of the year to come into effect in June 2020, said Petitcolin.

General Electric employs some 4,300 employees in the Cité du Lion, including 1,800 in the turbine business. The American group announced in May a social plan initially providing for the removal of nearly 1,050 jobs in France, including 792 in Belfort.

The GE file is closely monitored by Bercy, where a meeting was held last Tuesday to try to unblock the situation. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, has repeatedly asked the management to put on the table "a social plan less important in terms of job cuts".

Saturday, some 2,600 protesters, according to the prefecture, had beaten the pavement in Belfort in support of employees of the industrial site. In the ranks of the protesters, local elected officials but also the leader of insubordinate France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who abstained from any statement.

- "Fleuron" -

General Electric is "a flagship of our industry necessary to achieve the energy transition that #Macron and his friends have abandoned," he however tweeted.

This demonstration highlighted the dissensions within the inter-union: the CGT refused to take part, preferring to join a picket in front of the plant and disassociating from the South and the CFE-CGC, accused by some to be "sold".

Monday morning, about twenty employees still kept this stake in front of the site, according to AFP journalists.

"The CGT blew up the inter-union flight (...) I think it's a good thing that they are not there this (Monday) morning" during the vote, said Philippe Petitcolin.

The CGT intends to conduct separate negotiations with management, focused on maintaining benefits. According to Mr. Petitcolin the management will thus have "two fronts to manage" with "two negotiations" and concessions to be made "on both sides" which is "rather positive for the future of the negotiations".

© 2019 AFP