The 910 jobs at the Ford plant in Blanquefort (Gironde) are more than ever under threat. The US manufacturer has confirmed its intention to withdraw from the site in 2019 during a monitoring committee of the plant on March 9. “The current projections of production volumes are sound until 2019, which should allow the continuation of activity and associated jobs (…) .We do not see any Ford production opportunities in the longer term” , the automaker said in a statement.
The monitoring committee had been set up in May 2013 after the Ford Europe executives and the public authorities signed a five-year framework agreement providing € 15 million in aid to the site. maintain its workforce.
The union representatives showed their disappointment at the end of the meeting. “Blanquefort employees have always met the challenges presented to them, but Ford has made it clear today that it does not envision a future on the site,” FO Jean-Marc Chavant told the meeting. exit of the prefecture. He said Ford would consider finding a buyer.
Interdepartmental Minister for Industrial Restructuring Jean-Pierre Floris, who was appointed last week by the Minister of Economy and Finance to chair a “state-level” working group, said he did not get any a further answer on how the management envisaged “the maintenance of a sustainable site from the point of view of activity and employment”.
“We asked a lot of questions to Ford on the reasons for this decision. (…) The answers were promised for the next EC (Board of Directors, Ed) of Thursday,” he said. told the press.
“NOT THE RIGHT TO GO”
The solution advanced by Ford to go through a buyer is unanimously rejected by elected officials and employees. “We do not recognize the right to leave.They do not recognize the legitimacy to decide.There has been too much public money involved,” said CGT delegate Philippe Poutou, candidate for the presidential election of 2017 and employee of the company.
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, said on March 2, expect the American manufacturer “he maintains his industrial commitment on the site”, recalling that the state and the region had “brought him significant financial support “. On March 3, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Bordeaux asked to be associated with the file after having assured that a large German industrial group had contacted him for a possible recovery of the entire site.
In 2009, Ford had already sold its Blanquefort site to HZ Holding, a German company that had failed to maintain sufficient activity. Under pressure from unions and public authorities, the American manufacturer had resumed its plant in 2011 and committed in 2013 to maintain 1,000 jobs until May 2018 conditional on payments of public aid.
This Friday, March 9 employees organized a day “dead factory”. About 500 of them joined the prefecture in procession after crossing at mid-day the arteries of the city center. They were visited by former employees of GM & S Industry who led a long union fight in the Creuse to save jobs in their company bought after a liquidation.
With Reuters (Claude Canellas, edited by Caroline Pailliez and Eric Faye)