Little by little, General Electric (GE) is turning off the light in France.
The American conglomerate, specializing in particular in energy, which employs a little more than 13,000 people in France, is preparing to cut more than 750 direct jobs, of which nearly a hundred in Belfort (Territoire de Belfort).
To try to oppose it, unions and elected officials call on the population to demonstrate - with a mask - this Saturday in the streets of the Burgundy city.
This social plan is in addition to that concerning 485 jobs in the gas sector, signed in October 2019, after months of struggle and monster demonstrations in the streets of Belfort.
Very sensitive socially, the issue is also on a political level.
In 2014, when it bought out its competitor Alstom Energie for more than 12 billion euros, General Electric (GE) contractually committed to creating a thousand jobs in France by 2018. In vain.
GE preferred to pay a fine of 50 million euros to settle this broken promise.
A failure that unions and elected officials do not hesitate to remind Emmanuel Macron.
At the time, the future President of the Republic successively occupied the strategic positions of Deputy Secretary General at the Elysee Palace and then Minister of the Economy.
“And each time, he never opposed this takeover, on the contrary, recalls a unionist from the late Alstom Energie.
While the sale of this French flagship clearly posed sovereignty issues.
"
Highly strategic nuclear activity
The French company ensures, in fact, the maintenance of the turbines which are used in the French nuclear fleet and on the aircraft carrier "Charles-de-Gaulle".
Highly strategic, Alstom Energie is nevertheless sold with the blessing of France, which nevertheless imposes a safeguard.
Alstom Énergie's nuclear activity is housed in a joint venture called Geast, 80% owned by GE and 20% by Alstom.
Above all, the French state holds a golden share or “preferential share”.
This gives him a right of veto over any strategic decision that concerns Geast, such as its resale.
But six years later, a dramatic turn of events.
According to revelations from the Canard Enchaîné, Geast could return by the end of the year under the French bosom, through tricolor investors and a check for one billion euros.
A file in the file that makes job cuts at General Electric all the more sensitive.
"We are talking about the 753 jobs lost including 89 in Belfort but it is much more than that, insists Philippe Petitcolin, CFE-CGC union representative on the Belfort site.
There are also plans for IT activities, human resources, gas, but also coal and nuclear.
Several hundred jobs will disappear, without counting those with subcontractors.
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Already 3,000 jobs cut according to unions
On the GE site in Villeurbanne (Rhône), 200 jobs must be cut.
"With subcontractors, we can multiply this figure by three," warns Arnaud Séjourné, of the CFE-CGC.
It's going to be a real bloodletting.
“Also according to the CFE-CGC, since the takeover in 2014, 3,000 jobs have been cut at GE and 5,000 at subcontractors.
Contacted, the management of General Electric France did not respond.
Already in difficulty before the Covid-19 crisis, the American giant has embarked on a vast restructuring plan.
The company founded by the American inventor Thomas Edison almost 130 years ago is also at the center of an investigation led by the stock market policeman across the Atlantic for accounting fraud.
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In any case, on the side of Bercy, we ensure to follow the file closely.
A telephone meeting with the management of GE was also scheduled for Friday.
"It is a conference call as we do with many other companies," summarizes the Ministry of the Economy without further details.
