The plan to close the ArcelorMittal factory in Denain is a “massive blow”, denounces mayor Anne-Lise Dufour-Tonini

The northern elected official finds it “particularly despicable” to announce such news before Christmas. “If they confirm, we must ask them to reimburse the public money which was used for their cause,” she says.

The proposed closure of the ArcelorMittal factory in Denain is a “massive blow”, denounced Tuesday, November 26 on franceinfo the socialist mayor of this northern commune, Anne-Lise Dufour-Tonini, while employees of the steel giant's service centers are called to strike throughout France.

The strike movement began on Monday on certain sites to protest against the planned closure of the Denain and Reims sites, as well as the elimination of dozens of jobs on several sites. The northern elected official deplores this announcement “on the eve of the Christmas holidays”. Even if he “There is never a good time to announce this, this is particularly despicable”, she asserts.

According to Anne-Lise Dufour-Tonini, “the Denain site today has a direct connection with the motorway and the Scheldt, because millions of euros of work have been carried out so that a motorway lane serves their area at the same time as they served the former Usinord zone. We're sweeping everything away, it can't happen like that.deplores the mayor, who wants “call for accounts” at ArcelorMittal. “If they confirm, we must ask them to reimburse the public money which was used for their cause”she says.

“What scares us very much is the future of the Dunkirk site, with this carbon-free tool which was supposed to be produced, again with very large investments and massive public aid, and we understand that this is put on hold”, adds Anne-Lise Dufour-Tonini.

For the mayor of Denain, “it’s the story that has the hiccups.” “In December 1978, I was the granddaughter of an Usinor worker who came home and, looking defeated, started to cry. I have never seen my father cry. He said he was going to be made redundant and Usinor will close”says the elected socialist. She says to herself “anger, because, 50 years after the closure of Usinor, we are still paying for what they left as trash buried in the ground, nothing has been cleaned up.”