The Guyana Space Center will experience a significant drop in activity in 2023 and 2024, which will affect 40 subcontractor companies and will threaten, according to the unions, between 200 and 300 jobs for the 1,600 people who work there.
A drop in production linked to the end of Ariane 5, the delay of Ariane 6, the sudden closure of the Russian Soyuz launcher after the invasion of Ukraine, but also the suspension of the Vega-C program in December after the failure of its first commercial flight , explains to AFP the leader of the “European spaceport”.
“Things are going to get complicated”
However, the light launcher, for which the conclusions of the commission of investigation commissioned after its failure in February are awaited, had to compensate in 2023 for the transition between Ariane 5 and 6, with at least two launches. As a result, the CSG is only planning at this stage the last two flights of the Ariane 5 this year, before the launcher change scheduled for the last quarter of 2023.
“There will inevitably be operational and social consequences,” announces Emmanuel Pradié, deputy CEO of Europropulsion, a subcontractor specializing in the integration of solid-fuel engines.
“As long as Vega-C and Ariane 6 stop, things will get more complicated,” said Michael Rimane, an employee of this company. “On February 17 we must deliver the last engine. After that, we will be on technical stoppage. Currently, we are 39 employees at Europropulsion. We were 70 two years ago”.
Staff reductions linked to the economic crisis but also to the structural transformation of the base, considered uncompetitive. The arrival of Ariane 6 should make it possible to rationalize manufacturing costs with, for example, the serial production of the P120 boosters, common to Ariane 6 and Vega-C, to reduce the launcher’s sales price by 40%.
Opening of negotiations
On January 17, a meeting was held with the base unions (FO, UTG, CDTG and CFE-CGC). “Of 40 subcontractor companies, around fifteen would be affected by the degreasing and between 200 and 300 jobs out of 1,600 would be threatened,” says Jean-José Mathias, delegate of the UTG of the National Center for Space Studies (Cnes), operator of the Kourou base.
Negotiations with the unions should lead to the signing of an agreement in April to propose alternative solutions to redundant dismissals. Avoid forced exits, “I’m not sure we’ll get there,” warns Marie-Anne Clair. “It is also up to the manufacturers to propose solutions, the Cnes is not the employer of all the employees who work at the base”, recalls the director of the CSG.
For Sébastien Savreux, on behalf of CFE-CGC Arianegroup, however, it is up to the principals to assume “their role of social moderators” and the State to “offer aid” to “encourage voluntary departures” and “accompany the decline in activity”.
13% of Guyana’s GDP
“The problem today is how to finance this support,” adds Christophe Dupuy, CFE-CGC Arianespace delegate, who denies that employees are “the only adjustment variable.”
“250 employees is still 20% of the total workforce” of the base. “Unemployed employees will have a hard time finding work given the lack of industries in Guyana,” he notes, fearing a “ripple effect” on the rest of the economy.
Because although the share of space in Guyana’s GDP halved between 1990 (24%) and 2019 (12.6%) under the effect of the diversification of the economy, the sector remains a driving force in a territory affected by high unemployment.
In 2019 it accounted for one in twelve jobs in Guyana and one in six in the private sector, as well as 40% of imports and 83% of exports, which include satellites launched into orbit from the CSG for French companies or foreign.
Source: BFM TV
