Between 3,500 and 5,000 demonstrators gathered Saturday in Lannion, in the Côtes-d'Armor, to protest against the loss of 402 jobs on the Nokia site. In total, the company plans to cut more than 1,200 jobs in France.

Between 3,500 people, according to the police, and 5,000, according to the CFDT, demonstrated Saturday at the end of the morning in Lannion, in the Côtes-d'Armor, to protest against the loss of 402 jobs on the Nokia site, which provides at total to cut 1,233 jobs in France. "In ten years, it's the 13th plan", "Young people hired, already fired" or "keep Nokia jobs in Lannion", could we read on the banners or placards brandished by the demonstrators. 

Fourth social plan since 2016

This is the fourth social plan since the 2016 acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent by Nokia. The three previous plans had touched the support functions whereas, in this fourth plan, it is research and development (R&D) which are concerned "at 95%", recalled the trade unionists.

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Towards the disappearance of the Lannion site?

For the unions, the current plan will inevitably lead to the disappearance of the Lannion site, which will employ less than 400 employees if it is implemented, but also to the disappearance of Nokia from the French industrial landscape. "It is a betrayal, towards the employees, towards the territory, towards the public authorities (...) the political power must act against these betrayals", declared Bernard Trémulot, central delegate CFDT. With the departure of Nokia, "Lannion, a historic bastion of telecommunications, would lose part of its identity," he said during a speech before the start of the demonstration.

Pauline, 24, who came from Marseille two years ago to settle in Lannion to work at Nokia, expressed her disappointment. Like her, more than 200 young engineers have been recruited on this site since its acquisition by Nokia in 2016. With the research tax credit (CIR), which Nokia used to recruit these young people, "a French engineer does not cost more expensive that a Chinese engineer "at the company, affirmed to AFP Bernard Trémulot, wondering about the motivations of such a social plan.

"A city we murder"

"It’s almost a city that we are murdering somewhere, because it’s the city’s third employer who is almost on the verge of liquidating its site," Lannion mayor Paul Le Bihan told AFP. (PS). "It is intolerable. A city of 20,000 inhabitants cannot cash in on this kind of plan," he said. These 402 redundancies are "unjustified, incomprehensible, intolerable and unbearable," summed up a union member.

In the demonstration, which ended around 1 p.m., several elected officials wearing their tricolor scarves were present. But also representatives of the Hop! de Morlaix (Finistère), a few tens of kilometers away, threatened with closure with 276 job cuts. "It's 47 years of history that have been swept away with the back of the hand," recalled Sébastien, with reference to Brit Air, the company founded in Morlaix in 1973, bought by Air France about fifteen years ago. years and whose Hop! is a subsidiary. "All efforts are requested from employees and nothing from finance," he regretted.