“The announcement had the effect of a hammer blow on employees. » Yann Amadoro, CGT delegate from Ascometal, is stunned. Like the rest of the company, the trade unionist learned on Friday May 24 of the withdrawal of the Italian group Venete, the only known buyer to date of the steelmaker’s auto division. This news jeopardizes the future of three of the company’s five sites, currently in receivership. Two are in Lorraine, in Hagondange (Moselle) which houses the head office, the research center and a factory, and in Custines (Meurthe-et-Moselle). The third is in Saint-Etienne. Cumulatively, this represents 627 jobs.
“There is no more dialogue between Venete and Swiss Steel [l’actuel propriétaire], which jeopardizes the recovery because there is no plan B”continues Yann Amadoro.
The deadline for submission of takeover applications is in fact set for Monday May 27, with the Strasbourg court having to rule on May 30. The bad news was communicated to the judicial administrators by mail on Thursday evening. In this missive, Venete explains that he is giving up due to one of the suspensive conditions issued: that requiring that the asbestos removal and dust removal of the factory located in Hagondange, which amounts to 11 million euros, be taken care of by the Swiss Steel group.
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“This condition is essential for [le groupe] Venete, completely foreign to these environmental risks and which cannot bear them. Despite your efforts and those of Interministerial Committee for Industrial Restructuring [CIRI], nothing allows us to conclude that Swiss Stell will cover these costs”wrote to the directors Alessandro Banzato, the president of the Italian company, in this letter that we were able to consult. “There is no question of continuing to mobilize our management on a daily basis, to deploy considerable efforts and to bear costs to obtain the satisfaction of the other suspensive conditions when this condition, announced for a long time, will clearly never be satisfied”, continues the leader.
The CGT is organizing a massive mobilization from Monday May 27
The announcement was made this Friday morning to elected officials. The CGT, very angry, is organizing a massive mobilization from Monday May 27: “For employees, the question is not to know who is at fault, but to find a solution which guarantees the recovery of society and the safeguarding of jobs. Again Thursday evening, we were in contact with the CIRI which was rather reassuring on this point: “Everything is under control”, “We will play mediators to find a solution”, we were told. This is the result! After all these months spent playing mediator, the situation is completely beyond the control of this same government which says it wants to put the industry back at the heart of priorities. »
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