The threat had been hovering for months, it has just been carried out. In Belfort, the CFE-CGC and SUD Industrie of the gas entity of General Electric (GE) filed a motion for summons to the judicial court, Monday, May 10, to claim, on the part of the American energy conglomerate, compliance with its commitments made in October 2019. They had come to end a conflict that had broken out five months earlier when a plan to cut 792 jobs (485 in the end) out of 1,760 had been made public.
These commitments include the location in Belfort of the world center of excellence for 50 Hz turbines (it is now located in Dubai), a minimum workforce of 1,275 employees no later than December 31, 2020 (around thirty positions remain to be filled), the development of a complementary industrial project focused on hydrogen, energy on demand and the 4.0 plant, as well as the reclassification of employees of the stator-combustion line in Bourogne, near Belfort, relocated in Hungary.
“No perspective”
This referral follows a formal notice, notified by letter on February 8, asking the managers of GE to respect the agreements signed with the French State in November 2014, at the time of the takeover of the energy branch of Alstom, then with the CFE-CGC and SUD Industrie in October 2019. “The response we received on March 31 offers no prospect for Belfort”, deplores Philippe Petitcolin (CFE-CGC), supported by Alexis Sesmat (SUD): “We have no choice but to take legal action. “
In this letter, Scott Strazik, CEO of Gas Power, reaffirms that the activity for which he is responsible “Is facing profound changes resulting from the energy transition and worsened by a period of unprecedented uncertainty linked to the global pandemic” and justifies its restructuring on a global scale by “A situation of industrial overcapacity”.
He then recalls the need, for all of the group’s sites around the world, to improve their operational competitiveness while deploring that “The target of 12 million euros of cost reduction per year at the Belfort site was missed in 2020, only 5.3 million having been achieved”. Gold, “Projections show that it will also be in 2021”. Regarding the new industrial project, he believes that “Some identified strategic axes are not viable in the current market context”.
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