Union delegates from Valdunes, France’s last maker of train wheels, sacked last week by its Chinese shareholder, advocated a temporary nationalization in Bercy on Thursday, the minister promising instead to help find a buyer, they told AFP. the CGT, majority.
“They are trying to take the issue seriously, they are working on a future buyer and they have told the shareholder (Chinese industrial group MA Steel, editor’s note) to do things right,” said the CSE CGT secretary. , Maxime Savaux, after a meeting with the Delegate Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure.
However, “what we want is for the State to position itself in Valdunes by putting capital in the box,” continued the trade unionist. The State “is in the middle of a reindustrialization and green energy plan, we are going to put more than 100 billion on the table and we can put Valdunes at the center of this project”, investing “40 or 50 million” there, a- begged.
But “nationalizing is not their strategy: they want to find someone serious to start negotiating whether or not they are going to put money to help the new shareholder,” he lamented.
SNCF criticized
The regional manager of CGT Metallurgie, Ludovic Bouvier, present in Bercy, criticized a “totally incoherent” government position, which leads to “a losing strategy”.
On May 5, the sole shareholder, which had acquired Valdunes in 2014 after a suspension of payments, announced that it would no longer inject money into it. Its two French sites, located in Leffrinckoucke and Trith-Saint-Léger (North), employ 336 people.
The CGT regrets that the SNCF, historical client of the manufacturer of wheels and train axles, has “gradually diverted its orders to the European competition”.
On Wednesday evening at France 3 Hauts-de-France, Roland Lescure had wished to ensure continuity of activities “until the end of the year”, the time to look for a buyer with the shareholder. He also pointed to “excess capacity at Valdunes.”
Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to travel to Dunkirk on Friday as part of the presentation of his strategy for the reindustrialization of France. The president has turned the northern port, located a few kilometers from Leffrinckoucke, into a “symbol of industrial reconquest territory,” according to the Elysée.
The Valdunes CGT indicated that it had asked to meet with him on this occasion, without returning at this stage.
According to the union, Roland Lescure and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire planned to go to the Trith-Saint-Léger site, where left-wing and RN politicians marched to support the employees, who have been on strike since May 5. . .
Source: BFM TV
