The decision of the Japanese tire group Bridgestone to close its Béthune plant (Pas-de-Calais) is “revolting”, for Bruno Le Maire.
This choice "is a revolting decision, with a revolting method and revolting consequences", insisted the Minister of the Economy on CNews.
Bridgestone announced on Wednesday that it wanted to close its only factory in France.
Opened in 1961, it currently employs 863 people.
The group justified its decision by "structural market problems", production overcapacity in Europe and competition from low-cost Asian brands.
"We are going to fight," assured Bruno Le Maire, initially to try to "develop another activity with wider tires than those currently produced on the Béthune site".
#Bridgestone has taken an appalling decision with an appalling method that will have appalling consequences.
We will be following this file very closely with @AgnesRunacher and @xavierbertrand to find a coherent and acceptable solution.
#LaMatinale pic.twitter.com/q7nEsEaQJG
- Bruno Le Maire (@BrunoLeMaire) September 17, 2020
If this track does not lead to success, the government is considering "solutions for reindustrializing the site so that there is, for each Bridgestone worker, a solution which is a coherent and acceptable solution", he added.
"They let the disaster happen"
On Wednesday, Bruno Le Maire had denounced a "betrayal" in a joint statement by the president of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand.
"Bridgestone decided that long ago and they lied to us", reproached this Thursday morning, on CNews the former minister LR.
And to recall that "in November 2019", in Bercy, the European leaders of the company had affirmed "in the short term, in the medium term, there are no difficulties, we remain".
The deputy of France Insoumise attacked him this Thursday to "ministers and former ministers" he called "traitors, cynics, and liars".
“They let the disaster happen,” he denounced on BFMTV.
Factory employees are gathering this Thursday morning in front of the site.
Fabien Roussel, the national secretary of the Communist Party also a deputy for the 20th district of the North, went there.
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The Bridgestone file should also be very much discussed in the events organized by the CGT, the FSU, Solidaires and the youth organizations Fidl, MNL, Unef and UNL, to open the debate on job cuts, while restructuring is increasing. and social plans, as at Auchan, Nokia or Alinéa, which has already lowered the curtain on 17 of its 26 stores.
The Boiron laboratory, the French specialist in homeopathy, suffered its first strike this Thursday in 88 years of existence, 646 jobs are threatened.
As of August 30, 345 job protection plans (PSE), representing up to 51,000 jobs, had been identified since March, against 231 over the same period last year.
The CGT launched on July 9 its call for mobilization for this Thursday, almost two months before the announcement of a recovery plan of 100 billion €, which disappointed the unions by its "absence" of counterparts for companies and measures for “second line” employees during the health crisis.
