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The plan announced last week by the company to send part of the bulk production to China is mobilizing both among the ranks of employees and in other cognac houses. Trade unionists from Martell and Courvoisier also came to swell the ranks of this demonstration. “It makes us happy to have so many people,” underlines Matthieu Devers, CSE secretary for the CGT, at the meeting. He entered the Hennessy premises at 9 a.m. with the other union representatives for an extraordinary CSE with members of management.
Production ceased this morning on Hennessy's administrative, brandy and bottling sites. “All these people up there don’t realize the consequences for employment. »
Same concern for Charlène Aubert, CGT union representative at Courvoisier. “The situation is critical, if we accept this, it will have serious economic consequences. » The machinist specifies that the idea has never been mentioned in her company, but “we suspect that if Hennessy launches the project, the other houses will follow”.
The CGT at Martell will also survey its management tomorrow on this idea during the monthly CSE. Around thirty people from Maison au Martinet are striking alongside their colleague from Hennessy today. “There were winds, noises from tests in progress, it's worrying for the subcontractors, many families would be in danger” warns Anthony Jasmin, union representative.
Unions want to strengthen the AOC
“Today, we are on strike, but it is renewable, it will depend on management’s announcements. The movement can harden,” warns Matthieu Devers. He hopes to obtain details on this test shipment to China scheduled for December 15. For the moment, the volume, the place of departure or even the destination are not known.
“No cognac house may not be the gravedigger of the region. »
“We have an established action plan which will be carried out in several stages. The inter-union of cognac houses wants to change the AOC, it must be modified to protect the basin. » The unions have already planned to meet next week to discuss the follow-up to the movement. They want to have an economic study carried out on the situation in the region. “We want to challenge politicians, so that they take sides,” says Renaud Audidier, secretary of the CGT Local Union in Cognac. None of them has yet publicly spoken out on the subject.
“What we need is for the population to realize that tomorrow it could affect any of us,” adds Fred Merceron, FO union leader at Hennessy, who is also worried about the consequences for the local area. employment, “even in relation to traders”.
In any case, from memory, no employee interviewed had seen such a project so far advanced. “I have been at Hennessy for 30 years, we have had studies on this subject, but it has never come to fruition. I am outraged, everyone finds it unacceptable. No cognac house may not be the gravedigger of the region. »
