The management of Bridgestone and the employees of the Béthune plant (Pas-de-Calais) signed an “
method agreement
” allowing five months to discuss “
alternative scenarios to the closure
”, announced Wednesday by the Japanese giant of tire, said Sunday the Minister for Industry.
Read also: Closure of Bridgestone in Béthune: have European subsidies been paid in Poland and Hungary?
Management and staff representatives "
signed a method agreement on Friday which gives five months to the discussion and which reopens alternative scenarios to the closure of the plant
" located in Pas-de-Calais, assured Agnès Pannier-Runacher at “
Grand Jury RTL-Le Figaro-LCI
”.
"
The management is getting organized in a negotiation process
," she said, saying that "
five months makes things possible
".
“
Social dialogue is essential, it must be based on trust,
” she added.
The State will not return to capital
The minister, however, criticized the method adopted so far by the management of the Japanese giant.
"
What is unacceptable (...) is not to have opened the discussion upstream of this brutal announcement
", she judged.
"
We knew that the plant was losing momentum
" and the authorities had invited "
the management of Bridgestone to the discussion table to precisely look at how we could regain productivity and competitiveness
".
Agnès Pannier-Runacher has also ruled out that the State enters into the capital of the company, a "
false solution
" which "
solves nothing
".
"
The heart of the matter is to have an industrial project that holds up
", according to her.
In recent days, the president of the Hauts-de-France region has urged the state to invest in saving the Béthune plant.
"
The French state must offer to finance the investments necessary to avoid the closure of the Bridgestone plant in Béthune and the relocation of its activity,
" he said on Sunday.
Read also: Are “three quarters of restructuring” unrelated to Covid-19?
A visit to the Béthune site on Monday
Agnès Pannier-Runacher and Minister of Labor Élisabeth Borne will go to Bethune on Monday morning "
to see everyone, everyone: local elected officials, local management
" and "
talk to European management
", recalled the minister.
Read also: Bridgestone plant shutdown: a headache for the state
"
There is absolute mobilization for this site
", according to government spokesperson Gabriel Attal, who "
believes in political pressure
" and underlines "
a form of political harmony around this issue
".
Japanese manufacturer Bridgestone announced on Wednesday its intention to close its Béthune plant in 2021, which employs 863 people in the manufacture of car tires.
An announcement which the government and the president of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand denounced "
the brutality, the relevance and the foundations
".
The Béthune plant, which produces automotive tires under the Bridgestone and Firestone brands, has been experiencing difficulties for a long time.
It is "
the least efficient
" among the ten factories of the group in Europe, says management.
Asked about BFMTV about the threat of closure of the factory, Jean-Luc Mélenchon criticized the absence, according to him, of state control over the use made of the money by the business leaders of the CICE (employment competitiveness tax credit) and who then proceed to layoffs.
"
We gave these people 20 billion per year, which went from the pockets of the French in the form of corporate taxes and were recycled
" hammered the boss of France Insoumise.
According to him, most would have been distributed “
in dividends
”.