REPORTAGE
It is a city already affected, with an unemployment rate exceeding 20%. Morlaix, in Finistère, has been in shock since the Air France announcements. The jobs of the 276 employees of the maintenance center of the regional subsidiary Hop! should disappear. The site is scheduled to close by 2023 and will mark the end of half a century of aeronautical history in the town. So residents, elected officials and employees mobilized on Wednesday, with a demonstration and a welcome committee for the director of the company.
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Several hundred of them made a hedge of dishonor in the morning to the general manager of Hop !, who came to present the site's condemnation plan. Among the 276 highly qualified employees, disgust is huge. "It is a feeling of disgust, a feeling of total injustice, because we have sacrificed our families," reacts Eddy, 48, father of three. "We do maintenance on planes, we have lives at stake, like pilots. And we are left behind."
These are now the human consequences feared by this aircraft project manager. "My children, they don't understand, because we always said we were the best and we close, so they don't understand too much," insists Eddy. "Not all people are good in their heads. There are some who are under seal. What is happening here is really serious. Our politicians take us for idiots, and even more Brittany. So now this begins to suffice. "
In front of the Hop! Gates, dozens of crosses were planted in the grass and the list of all the employees sacrificed by Air France was posted on the gates. The new socialist mayor of Morlaix Jean-Paul Vermot does not admit defeat. "Yes, this territory will be ready to rise to save its jobs," warns the elected official. This is the watchword: "We will not let go". This Wednesday morning, pugnacity took precedence over depression.