Dozens of employees of the Tereos factory in Escaudoeuvres have been blocking entrances and exits from the site since Wednesday, protesting its upcoming closure, recently announced by the sugar giant, an AFP journalist said on Thursday.
“We blocked points of sale of sugar”
The employees installed a tractor in the morning at the entrance, which burned a mountain of tires and wooden planks. “No at closing”, could be read on a sheet that hung from the factory gates.
“We are blocking the release of sugar, of the 40,000 tons that are in the silo and of seeds for the next campaign,” declared Adrien Fené, 36, a tinker and secretary of the CGT of the CSE. For him, the factory closes to “maximize profits” for Tereos, because “the Escaudoeuvres site has never made the group lose money.”
Tereos, owner of Beghin-Say, mercifully announced the fermeture of this sucrerie, even if it was a distillery, which would lead to the removal of 149 poles, dans le cadre d’un projet de “réorganization de son activité industrielle en France”.
123 threatened positions in Escaudoeuvres
Escaudoeuvres, 123 stalls, will have to close in three months, due to a “reduction in the volumes of beet involved, which is mainly explained by agronomic reasons (crop rotation, drought, jaundice)”, according to the group.
Management says it wants to encourage a reclassification of employees by offering “different positions within other sites” in the region.
“We could not wait for the closure of this factory when the group has invested more than 60 million euros in five years,” Nicolas Siegler, president (right) of the Cambrai agglomeration, reacted at the event. “It is the industrial heart of this territory that is slowing down,” he lamented.
The sugar giant Tereos was recently sentenced in Lille to pay more than 9 million euros in damages for having polluted the Scheldt in 2020, due to the lack of maintenance of the Escaudoeuvres site.
Source: BFM TV
