Having joined Thales Alenia Space (TAS) in 1996, Guilhem Ganivet, a member of the Force Ouvrière union, does not remember having experienced a restructuring plan of such magnitude. “This is unprecedented and the situation is serious”, this technician laments, microphone in hand, in front of 700 employees gathered at the call of an inter-union FO, CFE-CGC, CFDT, CGT, on the central reservation at the entrance to the Toulouse factory, Tuesday September 17. “This plan is stupid and incoherent because our workload is set until the end of 2025. We are demanding that it be stopped completely and we will not give up.”
The FO secretary of the social and economic council (CSE) in Toulouse does not mince his words when describing the “adaptation plan” of the joint venture owned by Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), specializing in the manufacture of satellites and ground segments. It plans, over a period from 2023 to 2025, to eliminate 1,237 jobs in Europe, including 980 positions in France.
The Toulouse site, the headquarters of the French branch specializing in the manufacture of telecommunications payloads, is particularly affected, with the loss of 650 jobs out of a total of 2,700 people.
Miles away from the Ville Rose, 600 employees gathered at TAS’s other French site in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes). Specializing in the assembly, integration and testing of telecommunications and observation satellites, the factory is losing 330 out of 1,800 jobs. “The people affected by the job cuts will be redeployed within the Thales group. And so there are no job losses. “, says the management at World. “The objective is for the company to be profitable and competitive in the medium term in the telecommunications sector. »
Global orders slowdown
Cécile Larue is not convinced. “The company is liquidating skills”, deplores this systems engineer who came to the gathering “to see the damage.” “Except that in the space industry, the jobs, for the most part, are specific over long cycles. You don’t train people in fifteen days.”
In the highly competitive market for civil geostationary communications satellites, global orders are slowing down. “Before there were about twenty calls for tenders per year. However, for the past three years, there have only been ten, no more “, the company explains to justify the plan. As a result, in 2022, it won six calls for tenders, in 2023, none and in 2024, only one.
In addition to this reason, there are two others, according to the group: the new generation of satellites – digital -, reconfigurable in orbit, require less manpower and technological difficulties have delayed their development. The unions, however, are putting things into perspective. “We must not mix the aspects but treat them separately. “, recommends Fabrice Rialet, CFE-CGC central delegate. “And, above all, it is necessary to establish a strategy and a vision in a growing market ” suggests this tender and project manager.
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