The Bridgestone factory in Béthune -

F. Launay / 20 Minutes

The management of Bridgestone France welcomed on Friday the adoption of a set of social measures to support the closure of the Béthune tire plant with the majority of trade unions, the inter-union saying it was satisfied with have obtained redeployment leave “commensurate with the loss”.

“Bridgestone France and the majority of representative trade unions have today endorsed (…) a first set of accompanying social measures relating to the project to end the activity of the Béthune site”, announced the management in a press release.

Reclassification leave from 21 to 24 months

These measures include a pre-retirement scheme with support for a period of seven years and an allowance of 75% of gross salary, as well as reclassification leave of 21 to 24 months, depending on the employees' situation.

An early departure system has also "made it possible to validate at this stage the project of more than 131 employees", out of the 863 of the site, "of which 33 have found a permanent position", underlines the management.

Joined by AFP, the lawyer of the CSE Me Stéphane Ducrocq said he was "very satisfied" with the accompanying measures adopted.

"The unions got almost what they wanted, a reclassification leave extended to 24 months, up to the prejudice suffered by the employees," he said.

He praised the “bitter, difficult fight” of the inter-union to “convince the management that making a plan within the standards would not be enough”.

Closure of the plant in 2021

On December 10, union officials at the factory denounced the "shameful" position of management in negotiations related to the closure of the site.

The inter-union had initially claimed a reclassification leave of 36 months, against 12 to 15 months proposed by the management, according to Me Ducrocq.

The Japanese tire giant announced in mid-September the closure in 2021 of the Béthune site, citing a problem of production overcapacity in Europe, before closing the door to an alternative scenario proposed by the government to save the plant and preserve there. around 500 jobs.

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