If the management of Bridgestone continues to believe that the closure of its site in Bethune is the best solution, the group says it is now ready to study "alternative scenarios".
The employees, they want to believe it, but warn that they will fight to the end.
REPORTAGE
What future for the employees of the Bridgestone Béthune tire plant?
Less than a week after the shocking announcement from the Japanese tire giant that the site was shutting down, the French government indicated that it was going to "second-assess" the scenarios that led to this decision.
In the meantime, after a meeting between the representatives of the group, the employees, and the ministers Élisabeth Borne and Agnès Pannier-Runacher, on Monday, the dialogue seems to have been resumed.
And if Bridgestone has not given up on closing its site, the company says it is ready to study "alternative scenarios" for the industrial site.
What to give a little hope to the employees, who remain however very cautious.
>> ANALYSIS - Can the State still save the Bridgestone plant in Béthune
"Initially, they did not want to have a discussion. There, I think that the mobilization of all elected officials, of the government, that they will perhaps review their copy", hopes an employee at the microphone of Europe 1. "Of course we want to believe it, confirms another, I've been working here for 27 years, my father worked there. We have to invest, we have to let us work."
And another employee concluded: "The goal is not to give false hope, but to say that for the moment, things are moving in the right direction".
"If there is to be fire, there will be fire"
Still, we will have to wait two or three weeks to know the real motivations of Bridgestone.
In the meantime, the tension is mounting, and no question of being led by boat, warn the unions.
"We will not break the machines, we will continue the activity. Afterwards, if we have to light the fire, we have the right to do so," warns a worker.
"There, there was sadness the first days, but after, there will be the anger of the employees, and that we will not be able to hold back," said a colleague.
"If there is to be fire, there will be fire, I guarantee it".
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The unions say they observe serious situations of distress among the workers.
And according to them, it is not the two psychologists appointed by the management who will change anything.