• The buyer of the Alteo plant in Gardanne has announced the elimination of 28 jobs.

  • These job cuts are the consequence of the shutdown of the Bayer process, the transformation of bauxite.

28 fewer jobs at Alteo, Gardanne, in the Bouches-du-Rhône.

The buyer of the Alteo plant, world leader in alumina, United Mining Supply (UMS), announced on Wednesday a plan for “voluntary departures” for 28 employees out of the 500 or so on the site in the south-east of France.

“We have always been committed to reducing the social impact.

Today we have reached 114 job cuts with 86 new jobs created, ”Alain Moscatello, president of Alteo, told AFP after an extraordinary social and economic committee.

“We worked on reclassification positions internally.

We will not have forced departures ", assured the manager, explaining that the 28 employees who cannot be kept will be offered a" voluntary departure plan ".

500 employees

On January 7, the Marseille commercial court had entrusted the future of Alteo, which is one of the largest private employers in the Aix-en-Provence area with 500 employees and 400 indirect jobs, to UMS, a group established in Guinea, the only buyer then still in the running.

His offer provided for the elimination of 98 positions while promising "to get as close as possible to zero".

Located in Gardanne, near Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), the plant had been placed in receivership following a collapse of its orders and a crisis in the world market for aluminum.

In its takeover offer, UMS planned to cease processing bauxite, a red rock imported mainly from Guinea, thus ending the Bayer process that has been operating on site since 1894.

"We are going to stop the Bayer"

He plans to import only raw alumina powder to refine it on site, thus sparing the storage of bauxite residues, singled out by residents and conservationists.

“We are going to stop Bayer, importing bauxite so the affected positions are linked to this process,” explained Alain Moscatello.

Conversely, the jobs created will be thanks to "investments which have made it possible to increase the on-site grinding capacities" of raw alumina powder as well as "the development of new investors in the social and environmental responsibility of the company ”.

The negotiations with the unions should last about three months, the first departures taking place between October and the first quarter of 2022. "We will be vigilant so that there are no sudden departures", reacted the secretary of the CSE and elected from Force Ouvrière, Bruno Arnoux, contacted by AFP.

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