In the old coal basin of Decazeville, in Aveyron, on the Viviez site, the SAM, which produces aluminum pressure parts for the automobile, has ceased production since April 14, and employees will not resume not work if they have “No concrete track”. Tuesday, April 21, nearly 2,000 people, including local elected officials from all political stripes, gathered at the end of the afternoon on the site to maintain pressure on the State and the Renault group – the main ordering party of the SAM.
The site has been placed in receivership since December 2019, and the Spanish group CIE Automotive positioned itself, on March 8, to take over 150 jobs out of the 357 current employees, on a basis of 30 million euros in turnover. granted per year by Renault. Since then, the strong mobilizations in February and March as well as the successive round tables have enabled Renault to ensure an additional 10 million euros in turnover and also support the assembly activity of small parts from which CIE wanted to separate, which would make it possible to take on 50 additional employees.
But employees and unions consider the Spanish group’s position to be wobbly and highlight the lack of transparency: “That’s 150 jobs, if not nothing. They are also unwilling to accept regional or state subsidies. They do not say how much they are going to invest, for how long, they say that it does not concern us, that we must accept and that after we will see ”, regrets Sébastien Lallier, secretary of the social and economic committee (CSE) and employee representative at the commercial court.
“The promised investments never arrived”
The State was however ready to grant an envelope of 800,000 euros within the framework of the recovery plan; and the Occitania region, several hundred thousand euros.
The blockage is such that CIE Automotive withdrew its offer on April 8, while leaving the door open if the employees accepted their position.
But, for the latter, impossible to give in. It must be said that they have already experienced recovery projects and their share of uncertainties. In December 2017, the Chinese group Jingjiang bought SAM, before finally throwing in the towel two years later. “The promised investments never arrived. Many say here that it was calculated. They bought the buildings for 1 million euros, then left asking for 4 million. We had thirty machines, there are now only fifteen, they sold everything, even though they could have maintained them ”, tell, bitter, Sebastien Segond, employee for thirty years.
“We have recorded between us the sacrifice of 107 families”
“A large Chinese group did not invest in SAM when it had the financial means. We are therefore cautious when we see a Spanish group that comes with such announcements, that leaves us to fear the worst ”, confides David Gistau, departmental secretary of the CGT. Employees would especially like to be offered avenues of diversification: “We can also manufacture parts for aeronautics, medicine, perfume caps, there are a multitude of possibilities in foundry. “
In a speech, Ghislaine Gistau, secretary of the CGT union and union representative, does not hide her bitterness either: “We decided at a general meeting that 250 employees should be taken over. Between us, we have made the sacrifice of 107 families who would find themselves without work. We will not go below “, she said, applauded by the crowd.
If the mobilization remains strong in this former mining town of 5,000 souls, which, in forty years, has lost two-thirds of its inhabitants, it is because the restructurings follow one another. 40 kilometers away, the Bosch plant in Rodez announced in early March the loss of 700 jobs. Jean-Christophe, from the region, traveled from the Basque Country: “My mother worked here, my sister, my childhood friends, it’s important to support each other. “
Aurore Cros