A year after the contaminated pizza affair, the Buitoni factory in Caudry was closed by Nestlé. A hundred employees lose their jobs.
By NB withAFP
© DENIS CHARLET / AFP
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Ihe Nestlé group announced on Thursday the definitive closure of the Buitoni factory in Caudry, implicated in the scandal, leaving behind dozens of employees who say they have “nothing to do” with it. A year after the affair, the activity of the site has already been suspended since the beginning of March due, according to Nestlé, to a drop in sales. His fate was revealed to the unions during a meeting.
A hundred employees gathered in the early morning in front of the factory, whose gates were covered with black crosses with the name of each one, their date of hire and March 30, 2023 as a symbolic end. “Nestlé satiated, employees overwhelmed”, could we read on a banner at the entrance. The scene was partly covered in thick black smoke from burnt tires, visible for miles around.READ ALSO Buitoni, Kinder, Lactalis… Why a new scandal is possible
If the factory closed, “we would not only lose a job, but a family”, laments on the spot Christophe Dumez, 49, including thirty years at Buitoni. “We sleep very badly, we have nightmares, we are worried. Me, it was my first job when I left the army. I’m almost 50 years old, it’s not the right age. »
“The reputation of the factory will not help”
The site is at the heart of the scandal for having produced frozen pizzas with raw dough from the Fraîch’Up range, which could have caused the death of two children and the poisoning of dozens of others by the Escherichia coli bacteria. Judicial information has been open since last May in Paris for manslaughter in the case of 2 victims and involuntary injuries for 14 others, according to a judicial source. “All options are on the table” for the future of the site, “but our major challenge is to act responsibly vis-à-vis our employees”, declared, enigmatic, a spokesperson for Nestlé France to AFP in mid-March.
“To find work in the area, it’s complicated,” lamented Thursday Stéphane Derammelaere, Force Ouvrière delegate, who evokes many employees over 50 and couples whose two members are employed by Buitoni. “And you imagine, on a CV, “Nestlé Buitoni”? Do you think it does well? The reputation of the factory will not help when the employees have nothing to do with it, ”he continues.READ ALSO Buitoni case: how did we get here?
The group puts forward “flour contamination” as the “most likely” explanation for the presence of the bacteria on its pizzas. But other possible causes are mentioned: according to the prefecture, inspections by the health authorities had revealed “the presence of rodents” and the “lack of maintenance and cleaning of the manufacturing areas” in the factory.