The Japanese manufacturer Bridgestone announced Wednesday the closure by 2021 of its Béthune plant (Pas-de-Calais), which employs 863 people in the manufacture of tires for cars, a "betrayal" for the government and the president of the Regional Council of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand.

The 863 workers at the Bridgestone tire plant in Béthune expected anything but this.

The Japanese manufacturer has just announced that it is closing the site permanently.

Production overcapacity in Europe and Asian competition which is breaking down prices are the main reasons put forward.

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On the spot, it is a real shock for the workers, scandalized by the announcement made by a simple video message from the director of the site on Wednesday morning.

The Béthune site had been established for nearly 60 years.

For Denis Drouet, CGT manager, it is a real social disaster.

"We are not well, it's our job, our factory. It gave us a living for years. We are shocked by this closure announcement. Now we will have to manage the 900 men there and all their families. Knowing that with the Covid, companies are slowly dying in France. So to find a job, it will be very difficult ", he warns.

In two years, production had been halved

For several months, unions have been warning about the unsuitability of their tires on the market, as well as the lack of investment.

Production had been halved in two years.

"Quality and production level, it had become a disaster and we no longer saw the production manager. We were left to ourselves. We suspected it a little, for us it was done in advance", explains a worker with the feeling that the site has been purely sacrificed.

Bridgestone management promises accompanying measures or reclassification but the first letters of dismissal will be sent from April 1 of next year.

"A betrayal of trust" for Gabriel Attal

In a joint statement Wednesday morning, the government and the president of the Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand had already denounced the "brutality" of the announcement and requested the study of "alternative scenarios".

"A betrayal of the confidence that the State and the Hauts-de-France region have placed" in the Japanese group, for his part estimated Wednesday the government spokesman Gabriel Attal.