The company is located on the Route de la Paix, but the surroundings are no longer quiet. A makeshift mannequin, dressed in a white jumpsuit, hangs from the neck of a sign at the factory entrance, with capitalized writing on its chest. “French employees sacrificed”. Behind him, banners hang on the doors: “85 families on the street” EITHER “The industrial desert of Les Andelys”… The Norman company Europhane, which has been manufacturing public lighting in Les Andelys, in Eure, for more than half a century, will close in January 2025. This was announced by its owner, the Austrian group Zumtobel, on October 16 during an extraordinary social committee .
This new social plan in the French industry, after those announced at Michelin and ArcelorMittal, took everyone by surprise – workers, union representatives, local elected officials – and threatens 85 jobs. Europane management did not want to respond to the WorldBut according to a union source, Zumtobel, which has a turnover of more than one billion euros, has chosen to reorganize its production by moving its factories located in Austria and France to Serbia and the United Kingdom.
In Andelys, Europhane workers were on strike for three weeks. “But we had to go back to work because it was beginning to weigh financially on many employees”explains Frédéric Galian, union representative of the CFDT. For these workers, hope of saving their jobs is dead, but they are fighting for the amount of their severance pay. “We want to leave with dignity and force the management to take into account all the years we spent here”confesses Frédérique Jullien, a spider plane pilot for thirty-five years at Europhane. Beside him, his colleague Marie-José Lebray, a cable installer with twenty-seven years of experience, has difficulty hiding her anger. “We hear about social plans on television, but this worries us, it is very violent. They announced it to us like this, in a few minutes, without any humanity, boom, it’s over! »drowns
“social dumping”
A new meeting between the unions and Europhane management is scheduled for Thursday, November 21 to try to negotiate a “supralegal” dismissal bonus. “It is a confrontation that is beginning, but it is also an ordeal, explains Franck Théroude, CGT union representative. Of the 85 employees who will lose their jobs, the average age is 54 years with thirty-one years of seniority on average. Suffice it to say that at these ages it is very difficult to find work in the area. »
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