A few thousand people gathered on Saturday, May 30, outside the Renault factory in Maubeuge, which has been shutdown since Friday, to demonstrate against the automaker's decision to cut 15,000 jobs worldwide, including 4,600 in France.
The demonstrators started shortly after 10 a.m., at the call of the factory inter-union (CGT, CFDT, CFTC, CFE-CGC, South), a march leaving the site to reach the Town Hall of Maubeuge, about 6 km away.
Maubeuge big demo against the closure of the Renault site
This angry rumbling 🤬 pic.twitter.com/DlblJIH8QX
The manufacturer's management, in difficulty, plans to transfer production of the Kangoo electric utilities to Douai - about 2,900 employees -, about 70 km away, which would inherit a new platform.
"This is an earthquake that is happening. We want to keep our business here. Today this demonstration is very important, even if it is only a first step, to show the government and Renault that the employees and the inhabitants of this district are attached to this company and that we are supported. We need these jobs, otherwise it is a whole territory that will die! ", declared to AFP JĂ©rĂ´me Delvaux, secretary of the CGT-MCA union.
"The fight is just beginning"
"We were told that we were the best factory in Europe, that we had nothing to fear, and today we are told that we are going to close to put everything in Douai? We can't leave that leave ... ", indignant Jean-Marc Pelleriaux, 61, trainer in the retouching area, member of the CGT.
"The Kangoo must stay at MCA", "Let us defend our jobs, not the transfer of the factory from Maubeuge to Douai", "Senard: betrayal, Macron: keep your word!", Could we read on the banners.
Renault in crisis: "There is a lot of anger, a lot of misunderstanding"
"It is not the employers who will make the law, true democracy is here!", Chanted also the demonstrators, almost all of whom wore a mask.
Many elected officials with tricolor scarves also paraded in the procession. These, including the president of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand, had already mobilized Tuesday alongside unionists and factory workers. "The fight has only just begun," said Maubeuge DVD mayor Arnaud Decagny.
With AFP
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