Caudan (France) (AFP)
Hundreds of people, 2,000 according to the CGT, gathered Tuesday morning in Caudan (Morbihan) in front of the Foundry of Brittany whose employees are on strike after the sale of the factory by the Renault group.
"The wind of anger rises and it is unifying. The employees, scalded, will not let it go!", Launched at the microphone and to applause Maël Le Goff, CGT delegate of this factory of 350 employees.
Foundries from Poitou, Renault Cléon (Seine-Maritime) or Renault Le Mans, dockers from Lorient ... Employees of the automotive group, CGT union members, South or simple Communist Party activists came from everywhere to support the steelworkers of Caudan .
"The lessons that have been learned from the Covid crisis, including by the government, were to say that the country had to be reindustrialised (...) In reality, all this was just a sham," said he said.
"Public money was given to Renault without any conditions for maintaining employment (...) Those who lay off must return the money!"
"A country without industry is a country without a future", added the deputy of the North Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the PCF.
"We will place this factory under the protection of the Republic," he promised.
Established near Lorient, in Caudan, since 1965, the Fonderie de Bretagne manufactures suspension arms, exhaust manifolds and elbows, as well as gearbox differentials.
Renault had already sold the Foundry in 1999 to Teksid-Fiat, before taking it over in 2009. The group's management told the factory's Social and Economic Committee (CSE) on March 11 that it was looking for a buyer.
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