It was the first hot file that Bruno Le Maire had found on his desk when he became Minister of the Economy and Finance, in 2017: the announced closure of the automotive supplier GM&S of La Souterraine (Creuse) against which its employees are opposed. had been beating fiercely for months. A highly publicized fight, in the context of the presidential campaign. At the end of many twists and turns, it had found its epilogue in a takeover by the French leader in stamping, the GMD group, with order commitments from the manufacturers Renault and PSA, the reinforcement of public aid, and promises of investments. But the elimination of 157 of the 277 jobs.
From one campaign to another, a few months from the end of the five-year term, here is again the automotive subcontractor, renamed “LSI”, in a worrying situation. Its employees raised the alarm following a meeting with Bercy on Wednesday, December 8. “We are going to file for bankruptcy, summarizes Patrick Brun CGT delegate. The reason is simple: the promises were not kept. The builders did not respect the commitments signed in front of Bruno Le Maire in July 2017! And, since then, the cash flow is rapidly melting. ”
“The promises were not kept. The builders did not respect the commitments signed in front of Bruno Le Maire in July 2017! And, since then, the cash flow has been plummeting ”, Patrick Brun, CGT delegate
A situation that is not sudden and of which Bercy is aware. Follow-up meetings have taken place every six weeks since the start of the year, and have accelerated recently, every three weeks. Tempering the statements of employees, on a quick bankruptcy filing, the ministry however confirms their analysis and considers their legitimate concern.
Firstly because, in fact, the order commitments, obtained under pressure from Bercy in July 2017 – for 12 million euros by PSA, now Stellantis; for 10 million by Renault – were indeed only partially held.
The situation has only slowly deteriorated
And this, as of the resumption: in January 2018, the employees learned during a meeting of the monitoring committee in Bercy, that they would not have the 22 million euros of orders planned for the year, but only of 15 million to 16 million. Since then, the situation has only deteriorated slowly, as the employees feared. “Today, we are less than 2.7 million euros for Stellantis, and less than 5 million euros for Renault”, underlines Mr. Brun.
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