Demonstration by employees of the Buitoni factory in Caudry against the closure of their factory on March 13, 2023 (AFP / FRANCOIS LO PRESTI)
“No to closure”: supported Monday by the Minister of Industry, the employees of Tereos in Escaudoeuvres and Buitoni in Caudry expressed their anger at the closure, recorded or announced, of their factories which employ more than 300 people in Cambresis.
“That’s two bad news for a territory” already “hit by high unemployment”, lamented Minister Roland Lescure after a visit to the two sites.
In Caudry, up to half a thousand people, employees, elected officials and residents, gathered in the morning in front of the factory, where the frozen pizzas suspected of having caused the death of two children and the poisoning of dozens of others by the bacterium Escherichia coli.
Some were in work clothes, others cracked smoke bombs or held up makeshift signs on large white sheets: “Between lies and betrayal, let’s save our jobs” or “Nestlé must assume”.
Nearly 200 people work in this factory, which Nestlé has just suspended because of a drop in sales.
“There are many who still believe in it, but for me, it’s over,” said Jérémy Denimal, 28, an employee for 7 years, among the protesters. “I am here mainly to demonstrate for my colleagues who are between 40 and 55 years old. For them, it will be hard to find a job.”
– “Collateral victims” –
Demonstration by employees of the Buitoni factory and elected officials from the region in Caudry against the closure of their factory on March 13, 2023 (AFP / FRANCOIS LO PRESTI)
One of them, Emilie Ribeiro, 35 at Buitoni, now confides her “ashamed to work for them”. “They have no empathy for the families (victims of contaminated pizzas, editor’s note), nor for us,” she scolds.
On the spot, Roland Lescure is applauded when he says that “employees must in no case be the collateral victims of a tragedy for which they are not responsible”.
“I want us to produce in Caudry. Pizzas or something else,” he adds.
He claims to have “given 15 days” to management to “come back with concrete solutions”. The latter planned anyway to present its “solutions” to the employees during a meeting on March 30 on the future of the factory.
Demonstration by employees of the Buitoni factory in Caudry against the closure of their factory on March 13, 2023 (AFP / FRANCOIS LO PRESTI)
“All the options are on the table. But our major challenge is to act responsibly towards our employees,” reacted a spokesperson for the group to AFP.
Behind L’Oréal, Buitoni is the city’s second largest job provider. Its mayor, Frédéric Bricout, proposes to relocate the group’s factories closed in Ukraine — “Smarties, KitKat” there.
“We do not transform a factory like that in a snap of the fingers”, we answer at Nestlé, judging this solution “very complex, very technical”.
– Black smoke –
About fifteen kilometers away, the anger is the same in Escaudoeuvres, where the employees of the sugar giant Tereos, owner of Béghin Say, have been blocking their factory since Wednesday. The site, which was soon to celebrate its 150th anniversary, must close by mid-June: 123 positions are at stake.
Demonstration by employees of the Buitoni factory in Caudry against the closure of their factory on March 13, 2023 (AFP / FRANCOIS LO PRESTI)
About thirty employees feed wood fires and various materials, enveloping the site in a large plume of black smoke. “We will fight to the end,” says David Le Clainche, CGT delegate.
About 400 elected officials, employees and residents had already gathered in front of the sugar refinery on Sunday.
According to Tereos, this closure is essentially dictated by a “sustainable reduction” in beet production in 2023-24, with, in the Escaudoeuvres sector, a drop in surface areas of more than 10%.
“We have a group that makes money,” replied Roland Lescure after his meeting with the management of Tereos. “I asked the silly question: + Why? Aren’t you making a strategic mistake? + And I’m waiting for answers.”
He also announced an envelope of 3 million euros in order “to support industrial companies that want to invest in the territory”.