Gathered in front of the gates of the Hafner company in Estillac, 42 employees demonstrated against its closure on Thursday. The liquidation of this pastry manufacturing site for mass distribution, near Agen, in the Lot-et-Garonne, was announced Tuesday, a week after the announcement to staff representatives by email and videoconference. This quick decision was a shock, as confirmed by Dominique Gaillard, staff representative: "We find ourselves unemployed in the middle of Covid, overnight with nothing."
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He strongly denounces the attitude of the CEO of Hafner: "When we hear, during this confinement, that there will be no dismissal and that you have a CEO who allows himself to do what happens to us, it is to be a scoundrel. " To protest against this decision, which comes a year after the site was bought, the 42 site employees asked for authorization to demonstrate at the prefecture.
An event respecting medical gestures
The prefecture has given its agreement on condition that this gathering only concerns employees and that barrier gestures are strictly applied. What has been done, reports Dominique Gaillard: "We had brought water and soap to wash our hands." Arrivals were made "on site, individually, by car, with a mask and hydroalcoholic gel. The gendarmes supervised us, we did that according to the rules".
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"In any case, we will not have done anything," said the staff representative. Employees are now appealing to Emmanuel Macron and the government. The Lot-et-Garonne prefecture, for its part, said it was ready to organize a round table to support them.