(AFP / SEBASTIEN BOZON)
Around a hundred demonstrators, according to the police and the CGT, gathered Thursday in front of the prefecture of the Territoire de Belfort to ask for information on the progress of the transfer of the nuclear branch of General Electric (GE) to EDF, which is slow to come to fruition.
“There is an urgency to give a clear perspective to employees,” said Laurent Santoire, CGT delegate at the GE site in Belfort, which manufactures the Arabelle turbine, the main asset of the American group’s nuclear activities.
“The passage of time is not neutral”, it causes “an industrial risk” and can “impact the EPR 2 program”, he worries.
A delegation from the CGT was received by the prefect of the Territoire de Belfort.
“The government and EDF are mobilized to conclude this sale. The subject is moving forward,” reassures a prefectural source contacted by AFP.
The official signing of the transfer of GE’s nuclear branch to the French energy company, which was to take place on December 1, was postponed at the last moment.
“The file does not seem to be moving forward since then”, also worry the elected LR representatives of the Territoire de Belfort, in a letter addressed to the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire.
“No element is communicated, which generates a climate of tension and distrust on the Belfort site”, note the mayor of Belfort Damien Meslot, the deputy Ian Boucard, the senator Cédric Perrin and the president of the departmental council Florian Bunch.
“The blocking of the sale is a source of deterioration of the Belfort site, impacts the entity’s commercial relations and causes the future companies to lose market share,” they regret.
At the end of February, the CGT invited Bruno Le Maire to go to Belfort on March 21 to discuss this transfer.
According to union sources, the planned buyout concerns around 2,500 employees in France, including more than 1,300 in Belfort, and 3,400 worldwide.
EDF and GE announced in February 2022 “an exclusivity agreement” to discuss the French energy company’s takeover of GE Steam Power, the nuclear branch of the American conglomerate. President Emmanuel Macron then announced, from Belfort, the relaunch of a vast French nuclear program.
In 2015, Alstom’s energy branch was acquired by GE, following a long political-economic controversy that began in spring 2014. Emmanuel Macron was Minister of the Economy when the operation was finalized.