for more than two years, the employees of the ex-factory of clothes dryers Whirlpool work at idle and in the face of uncertainty. The industrial project is almost at a standstill. The factory, renamed WN, had been taken over by Nicolas Decayeux to produce lockers, refrigerated connected to, before he throws in the towel at the end of may. On Tuesday 30 July, the tribunal de commerce of Amiens has entrusted the recovery of the plant to the company Ageco Arrangement, specialized in the fitting of shops and local communities. This offer provides of and did not resume for 44 employees and will therefore result in 138 layoffs. It has been preferred to that of a former employee of Whirlpool, Philippe Valton, who proposed him, to take over nine persons in a first time and then 90 by 2021 to produce including distributors of pizza.
” READ ALSO – The conversion of factories often fails
on The 19th of August, letters of dismissal will be given and the employees kept “will be greeted by Ageco,” says one of the co-founders of the company. From the 20th of August, they will resume their activities, some in the same area of lockers refrigerated connected, other carpentry after training or in the office.
The secretary of State to the minister of Economy and Finance Agnès Pannier-Runacher “welcomes the decision of the tribunal”. “In less than two months, thanks to the mobilization of the services of the State and local government, the first concrete responses are made to the employees of WN”, she explains, highlighting “a potential a hundred jobs on the site by 2020, which will be proposed as a priority to the employees of WN”. Bercy and the players folder are working, in effect, to the search for the “location of new industrial activities on the site.” “The company Ynsect, a global leader in alternative protein, has indicated an interest to establish a centre of operations and logistics which will offer positions in technical functions, administrative and logistics,” details the ministry of the Economy.
Brigitte Fouré, mayor of the city of Amiens “notes with interest the resumption of a quarantine of the people”, but calls for caution because “it does not rule all”. “My first sense is intended, obviously, to the families of the employees of WN,” which she describes as “extremely responsible”. “They have been made redundant in the last year, they are at it again this year and they act in spite of it all so very worthy,” she says in the Figaro . It also carries a message of “hope”, highlighting the strengths of the metropolis of Amiens in employment.
Place political clashes
In two years, the factory amiénoise has earned 12 million euros, the majority of grant: $ 7.4 million Whirlpool (of which 5.3 million were used to pay the salaries in arrears) and $ 2.5 million from the State. But, in the absence of orders, these amounts were not enough to get back on track the factory. The company found itself in the impasse of cash. According to Bercy, which conducted an audit on the use of this public money, 98.5% of the expenses have been “justified”, even if there is an area of shade at 179.000 euros.
The scheduled closure of the company had been announced as early as January 2017, in full presidential campaign, due to the relocation of the production of clothes dryers in Poland. Therefore, the subject had become a symbol of the malaise of industrial French for candidates for the Elysée palace. Evidenced by the consecutive visits of Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron to employees during the period between the two rounds. Since then, the president of the Republic is returned to the site, in the fall of 2017, where he expressed his support for the project of recovery of Nicolas Decayeux, which was to save “to the term more than 270 jobs.” The parking lot and corridors, Whirlpool also became the theatre on several occasions, clashes and verbal between the president of the Republic and the deputy of the Somme, François Ruffin, France insubordinate.
” READ ALSO – French Industry: the rebirth of the plants, passes through new technologies
in an interview In the Parisien/Aujourd’hui en France published on Tuesday, the buyer of a time Nicolas Decayeux meets the employees of WN and admits to having made mistakes. “I understand absolutely that the employees I want, they insulted me. But I want to say that I’m proud of them. There are no areas of shade. The future will show”, lance-t-il. At the beginning of years 2000, more than 1000 employees were working on the site of Whirlpool. On the 19th of August, they will not be more than 44.
