The company is located on Route de la Paix, but on site, the decor is no longer peaceful. A makeshift mannequin, dressed in a white jumpsuit, hangs by the neck from a sign at the factory entrance, with writing on the chest in capital letters “French employees sacrificed”. Behind him, banners are hung on the gates: “85 families on the street” or “Les Andelys industrial desert”… The Norman company Europhane, which has been manufacturing public lighting in Les Andelys, in Eure, for more than half a century, is due to close in January 2025. Its owner, the Austrian group Zumtobel, announced this on October 16 during of an extraordinary social committee.
This new social plan in French industry, after those announced at Michelin and ArcelorMittal, took everyone by surprise – workers, union representatives, local elected officials – and threatens 85 jobs. Europane management did not want to respond to the Mondebut according to a union source, Zumtobel, which has a turnover of more than 1 billion euros, has chosen to reorganize its production by relocating its factories located in Austria and France to Serbia and the United Kingdom.
In Andelys, Europhane workers went on strike for three weeks. “But we had to go back to work because it was starting to weigh financially on many employees”explains Frédéric Galian, the CFDT union delegate. For these workers, the hope of saving their jobs is dead, but they are fighting for the amount of their severance pay. “We want to leave with dignity and force management to take into account all our years spent here”confides Frédérique Jullien, a chandelier airline pilot for thirty-five years at Europhane. At his side, his colleague Marie-José Lebray, a cable fitter with twenty-seven years of seniority, has difficulty masking his anger. “We hear about the social plans on television, but this concerns us, it’s very violent. It was announced to us like that, in a few minutes, without any humanity, boom, it's over! »she chokes.
« Dumping social »
A new meeting between the unions and Europhane management is planned for Thursday, November 21 to try to negotiate a “supralegal” redundancy bonus. “It’s a standoff that’s beginning, but it’s also an ordeal, explains Franck Théroude, CGT union representative. Of the 85 employees who will lose their jobs, the average age is 54 years old with thirty-one years of seniority on average. Suffice to say that at these ages, it is very difficult to find work in the area. »
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