Emmanuel Macron promised Friday in an interview with La Voix du Nord to "fight until the last quarter of an hour for Valdunes", the last manufacturer in France of train wheels, dropped last week by its Chinese shareholder. "The Minister of Industry will be at their side to find a buyer and help. The fight is morning, noon and evening," he said in this interview, granted after a visit to Dunkirk (North), where he announced huge foreign investments in electric batteries for a total of 6.7 billion euros.
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It is not because we create jobs on the side that we will not fight until the last quarter of an hour for Valdunes, "he assured. On May 5, China's sole shareholder MA Steel, which had acquired Valdunes in 2014 after a receivership, announced that it would no longer inject any money into it. Its two French sites, located in Leffrinckoucke and Trith-Saint-Léger (Nord), employ 336 people.
In work jackets and helmets on their heads, employees of the company participated Friday in a rally organized by opponents of the pension reform, on the sidelines of the visit of the head of state to Dunkirk, to show "that they do not want to die like that," said Olivier Bournisien, method manager at the forge.
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No temporary nationalization
The company's union delegates met Thursday at Bercy with the Minister Delegate for Industry, Roland Lescure, to whom they unsuccessfully suggested a temporary nationalization. "Nationalizing is not their strategy: they want to find someone serious to start negotiating whether or not they will put money to help the new shareholder," regretted the CGT secretary of the CSE, Maxime Savaux.
This Saturday morning on France Inter, Roland Lescure displayed as a "short-term priority" that "the shareholder continues to make the company live until the end of the year". "We will take advantage of this period to look for a buyer. (...) It is possible to find a buyer. We will do everything for it, "he assured. Wednesday evening on France 3 Hauts-de-France, the minister had also pointed to "overcapacity in Valdunes". According to the CGT, Roland Lescure and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire planned to visit the Trith-Saint-Léger site, where left-wing and RN politicians marched in support of workers, who have been on strike since May 5.
