Demonstration of Getrag employees, on the Blanquefort (Gironde) site, September 10, 2020. -

Mickaël Bosredon / 20Minutes

  • After closing the FAI site in Blanquefort last year, Ford announced that it was withdrawing from Getrag, an establishment located next door which employs 800 people.

  • The Canadian equipment manufacturer Magna now remains the sole owner of the site.

  • Ford remains the sole customer of the plant until 2024, and the unions denounce the lack of project beyond.

Like an air of déjà vu ... A little over a year after the closure of the Ford Aquitaine Industrie (FAI) plant in Blanquefort (Gironde), the neighboring establishment Getrag Ford Transmissions (GFT) is in turn found in the eye of the storm.

Ford, 50% owner of the site, announced at the end of August that it was ceding its stake to Magna, its Canadian co-entrepreneur within GFT, which thus becomes the sole owner of the Blanquefort plant.

A disengagement that sows anxiety in the ranks of the 800 employees of GFT, some seeing history repeat itself.

This Thursday, several unions called for a walkout and a demonstration in front of the factory.

Vases communicating between the two sites

“At one time, these two factories could not function without the other, recalls Vincent Teyssonneau, mechanic at GFT, and elected union of the CGT.

FAI made the automatic gearboxes for the American market, and we produced the manual gearboxes for Europe, and the employees made the vases communicating between the two sites.

When Ford shut down FAI last year, we sounded the alarm, now that it is withdrawing from GFT, that reinforces our fears.

"

Demonstration of Getrag employees on the Blanquefort site on September 10, 2020 - Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

Ford has, however, guaranteed production volumes at the GFT plant in Blanquefort for four years, "it being up to the new owner to explore new markets and develop the products", the local authorities of the New region explain in a joint press release. Aquitaine, the department of Gironde, Bordeaux Métropole, and the towns of Blanquefort and Bordeaux.

“Ford remains our only customer until 2024 only, and with small order volumes, nuance Vincent Teyssonneau.

Magna is now alone, and without any plans for the Blanquefort site.

We fear a definitive closure or a social plan in early 2024. "

What future for the manual gearbox manufactured at GFT?

"Added to this are the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis," explains Jérôme Bouscarrut, a boilermaker at GFT for more than twenty years.

We're going to be producing 400,000-450,000 gearboxes this year, but the auto market has collapsed, and what we haven't sold this year will not be produced next year.

Above all, many are wondering about the future of the product coming off the production lines of GFT, the MX65 box, a manual gearbox, when the automotive market evolves towards the electric car (without gearbox) or the hybrid with Automatic box.

Communities, which also underline "a significant drop in sales and orders" within the automobile market, "at the very moment when it must make its transformation towards new forms of energy and motorization", want reassuring, however.

“GFT's production tool has been extensively renovated [more than 113 million euros of investment] and it meets the latest industry standards.

"

"It was written, that's what is terrible", according to Philipe Poutou

As a link between the two sites, and between the union struggle over at FAI and the one starting at GFT, the trade unionist and ex-presidential candidate Philippe Poutou made the trip this Thursday.

“I come as a colleague, I worked for 25 years next door, and also as a trade union activist,” he explains.

And he has a radically different vision of the situation than that of elected officials.

Philippe Poutou, in support of Getrag employees on strike, September 10, 2020. - Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes

“What is happening today at GFT is the sequel to what happened at FAI.

It was written, that's what's terrible.

No sooner has Ford finished the next job, than it starts here, it's not a surprise.

And most likely, Getrag will also be leaving soon, there is no reason to keep a site in an area like Bordeaux where there is no automotive industry.

"

"We want the same social plan as at FAI if ever we have to close"

Despite the call for the mobilization of unions, only a hundred people made the trip.

“There is resignation, notes Philippe Poutou, and unfortunately the defeat we suffered next after twelve years of struggle, despite all the noise we have made, discourages some.

What is to be feared is that there is not really a struggle and that they are just discussing the financial conditions of the start.

"

In addition to the requirement "of Ford commitments on long-term order volumes to perpetuate the site and the jobs", the unions also demand from the industrial group "that it deposit in an escrow account 200 million euros to finance possibly a PSE and early retirement.

"We want the same social plan as at FAI if ever we have to close," warns a trade unionist.

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Municipal in 2020 in Bordeaux: candidate Philippe Poutou announces that he has been made redundant from the former Ford factory

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Gironde: The Ford plant in Blanquefort has definitively stopped production on Wednesday

  • Aquitaine

  • Social

  • Philippe Poutou

  • Union

  • Industry

  • Automotive

  • Bordeaux

  • Society