(AFP / JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD)
“I really think of the 316 employees who, this morning, are mostly devastated, because they were very attached to their production tool,” said the mayor of Vannes David Robo (various right) this Tuesday, November 5.
“It’s a
black day
for Vannes, it is a
earthquake for the territory.”
This Tuesday, November 5, the mayor of Vannes David Robo (various right) reacted to the press after the announcement of the
closure of the Michelin factory
of this town in Morbihan, with nearly 300 employees affected.
“This is a very, very hard blow to the Vannes economy: for a very long time, Michelin was the
first private employer in the city”,
the mayor of this town of 55,000 inhabitants told AFP. “The development of Vannes is closely linked to the arrival of Michelin, 63 years ago, through a
working-class neighborhood that was built, a railway, a water plant”,
he recalled on the air of
France Info.
“I really think of the 316 employees who, this morning, are
destroyed for the most part,
because they were very attached to their production tool. I really call on Michelin to
very individualized monitoring of these employees”,
added David Robo to AFP.
Michelin also announced the closure of its factory in Cholet by 2026. The Minister Delegate for Industry Marc Ferracci called on Michelin this Tuesday to
put in place an “exemplary support plan
of employees and territories” in a press release. The minister “will be
vigilant on the quality of the measures that will be implemented
both on the reclassification and retraining of each employee and on actions to find a buyer so as not to impact the industrial footprint of the territory”, added the minister's office.
“We saw the factory deteriorate little by little”
In front of the entrance to the factory, located in an industrial zone,
employees burned tires and pallets
this Tuesday, noted an AFP journalist.
The announcement by the director of the closure of the site, this Tuesday around 9 a.m., “was
greeted by great silence.
Everyone blamed it,” said Éric Boisgard, employed since 2004 at the Vannes factory, former CGT union representative.
“We saw the factory deteriorate little by little,”
he added. The factory, established in the early 1960s, designs metal reinforcements to form the “skeletons” of heavy-duty and passenger car tires, Michelin indicates on its website.
Management announced this Tuesday morning “to the 1,254 employees of the Cholet and Vannes factories its intention
to stop production, no later than early 2026.
These two factories have been faced for several years with
great economic difficulties”,
indicated the industrialist in a press release. In an interview with AFP, Michelin CEO Florent Menegaux promised to
leave “no one behind”.
He shared two commitments from the group: “we take care of everyone” and
“recreate at least as many jobs
that we will have eliminated them in the territory”.
