Belfort (AFP)
The union and the management of General Electric (GE) have signed an agreement on measures accompanying the social plan that provides for some 485 job cuts in Belfort, according to union sources Friday.
Negotiations began in early October after GE Belfort employees approved a new management proposal to save 307 of the 792 jobs at the gas turbine production site initially scheduled to be abolished. By the end of 2020, the total workforce of this site will be reduced to 1,275 employees.
"A majority agreement on the accompanying measures of the plan for safeguarding employment (PSE) proposed in GE's gas turbine business in France was concluded Tuesday," confirmed the management of the US group to AFP.
According to the management, which will submit this plan Friday to the labor inspectorate, "all the signatory parties have had as a priority to encourage voluntary departures and reclassifications within the group, while improving accompanying measures."
The agreement, the inter-union says, "improves the unilateral measures of management" and aims at three "major objectives": "implement an industrial project to ensure the future of the site, save as many jobs as possible and avoid at most the forced redundancies ".
"This is a defensive agreement that limits the impact of the PSE, but remains unsatisfactory as it still involves job cuts," she nevertheless said.
The staff representatives say they have "struggled" to obtain "a plan without forced departure" and "accompanying measures maximizing voluntary departures".
But for the CGT, which did not sign the framework agreement, "the management of GE provides no guarantee on the skills that will be maintained."
General Electric employs some 4,300 employees in the Cité du Lion, including 1,750 in the gas entity. The American group announced last May a social plan initially providing for the removal of nearly 1,050 jobs in France, including 792 in Belfort.
© 2019 AFP