After the official announcement, Tuesday, November 5, of the closure of the Auchan store in Bar-le-Duc next June, between 150 and 200 people gathered this Wednesday, November 27, in the hypermarket parking lot to support the employees… and influence the negotiations which are opening.
“We are still in denial. We are demonstrating today, but we still have difficulty expressing what we feel…” Karine has been working in the Auchan hypermarket in Bar-le-Duc for 34 years. Like the 107 other employees, she learned of the store’s closure on Tuesday, November 5. “When we arrived in the morning, we were all asked to go to the meeting room and told the bad news. We were left stunned. We didn’t even have a reaction. We didn’t have the words. We really didn’t expect it. Today, we are disgusted…”
“We hope to be supported as much as possible, because with more than 500 job losses in the region in recent months, it is difficult to say that we will find elsewhere…”
Wednesday, November 27, between 150 and 200 people gathered in the parking lot of the supermarket. Employees, retirees from the brand, customers, union representatives from other stores in the region, but also the mayors of Bar-le-Duc and Savonnières-devant-Bar… all wanted to show their support. And express their anger. “It is scandalous that the management of Auchan, which continues to make substantial profits internationally, which has benefited from state aid, which, at the start of the year, bought 97 ex-Casino stores, has chosen to sacrifice those who have enabled this success for years,” says the FO, CGT, CFDT inter-union of the Barisian store.
Putting pressure on negotiations
“This is a first demonstration to put pressure on,” adds Pascal Villain, departmental secretary general of FO. “Tomorrow (today, Thursday, November 28, Editor’s note) the first negotiation meeting takes place to discuss the job protection plan. The Mulliez group (owner of Auchan, Editor’s note) has the means, so we hope that the negotiations will be serious. » “What we want is a reclassification within the group,” adds Pascaline Decorcelles, FO employee. “We hope to be supported as much as possible, especially for those who are close to retirement, like me. Because with more than 500 job losses in the region in recent months, it’s hard to say that we will find somewhere else…”
No buyer
So what will become of the nearly 9,000 m2 of the Auchan store in Bar-le-Duc? “During the meeting where the closure was announced, we asked the question of a buyer. We were told that steps had been taken in advance, and that there were none. And what will happen to the gallery’s traders? », deplores the employee. Fatalist, his colleague Karine no longer believes in it either. “Everything has already been decided, we will not remain open,” she concludes. “I just hope the negotiations go well and we get what we deserve. We spent half our lives here. We gave everything of ourselves and our family life. »
P.-J. P.
A “cascade of announcements”
“Every week or every 15 days, there is a new announcement. We are at more than 600 jobs threatened in the department! » Pascal Villain took out the calculator. With the 108 employees of Auchan, whose store is due to close in June 2025, “680 people” are affected by job cuts in Meuse. “At Bonduelle in Saint-Mihiel, they are also on strike. And then there is Cora in Verdun. According to Carrefour, there are too many people in management…”
Not to mention the closure of the departmental headquarters of Crédit Agricole (against which a demonstration is to be held this Friday, November 29), the disappearance of the La Poste parcel platform, the liquidation of the Stenpa stationery in Stenay and the takeovers in Scop , not without salary cuts, from Bergère de France and de la Meusienne to Ancerville. “This cascade of announcements is a very bad signal for the South of Meusien. It’s a tense social week in a very complicated period,” said Martine Joly, mayor of the city-prefecture of Meuse, present with Auchan employees this Wednesday morning.
