Bridgestone closure: the government will mandate a second opinion
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister in charge of Industry alongside Philippe Burnage, Managing Director of Manufacturing at Bridgestone, after a visit to the tire plant in Béthune, September 21, 2020. REUTERS / Pascal Rossignol
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3 min
In France, the government is going to mandate a “second opinion” on the situation of the Bridgestone tire plant threatened with closure in Pas-de-Calais.
This Monday, a meeting between the ministers of Industry and Labor, management, unions and local elected officials allowed us to take a break and reflect on alternatives concerning the future of the 900 threatened jobs.
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With our special correspondent in Béthune,
Aabla Jounaïdi
The
brutal announcement of the closure
still does not get through.
Xavier Bertrand, the president of the Hauts-de-France region, told the group's European management, nothing justifies such a radical measure.
“
After a while I said to them,
'You lied to us, we can't trust you, we turn the page. We turn the page, but now you are putting your cards on the table.'
And again we are. go see if they finally understand or not.
"
Not competitive enough, the Béthune plant.
For employee lawyer Stéphane Ducrocq, Bridgestone's calculations are simply not good: “
The economic reason must be considered at group level and therefore particularly at European level, and it is obvious that this plant it has been stripped of all investment for years and now that it is found to be dilapidated, it is closed altogether.
"
►
Also to listen: Closure of Bridgestone: "For each job lost, you create three yellow vests"
The government is going to mandate the Accenture cabinet for a second opinion so that it can study what can really be done to save jobs.
“
This is very directly what we are going to do because we do not want to fall into fatality and resolve to, I would say, this decision which certainly calls for a second opinion.
And that is what we are doing and that is why we will bring together all the premantes parts within 2 to 3 weeks specifically on this subject
”, indicates Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister in charge of Industry .
A time to study with Bridgestone avenues of diversification, if necessary the State could invest as part of the recovery plan.
Satisfaction on the part of the unions
Certainly, political pressure played a role.
Management's brutal decision to shut down the site backfired and helped close ranks in favor of employees.
“
We are, we will say, in the fight, but this is the first time I see that there is a national idea behind Bridgestone.
There are all the unions, so there are five unions, we are all together.
And here you can look in relation to media and company, it's rare that that can happen.
So here is.
We are given the machines, we are given the technology, we are going to make big tires, we are going to earn money in Béthune,
”comments Stéphane Lesix, CFDT secretary of the Social and Economic Committee (Cse), the representative body of the staff.
►
To read also: France: Béthune still hopes to be able to save its Bridgestone factory
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