Employees of the steel mill Ascoval of Saint-Saulve (Nord), whose jobs are threatened, blocked, on the morning of Friday 26 October, all entries of a site of Vallourec, a shareholder of the factory, Aulnoye-Aymeries, near Maubeuge.
The action comes in the wake of the reference to December 7 of the decision of the commercial chamber of the tribunal de grande instance, Strasbourg, concerning the future of the acierie, in order to leave for a two weeks stay additional to find a buyer. The plant in Saint-Saulve has been placed into receivership in January.
Delegate CGT of the site of Saint-Saulve, Nicolas Lethellier explained Friday at the AFP that protesters have made ” a complete blockage of the site, nobody going. The idea is to put pressure on Vallourec so that there is a meeting today at Bercy ” on the future of the plant. Lights tires have been lit in front of the entries. Vallourec, in which the State is a shareholder, holds 40 % of the plant.
The story :
In the North, the impossible agreement of resumption of the steel mill Ascoval
Evaluation
“Ecœurés by the State “, and by the group Vallourec, the employees had decided Wednesday to stop work and block the site of Saint-Saulve. They were protesting against the refusal of Vallourec to provide the financial support requested by Altifort, the only candidate for recovery.
The franco-belgian group has made “a firm offer” by committing to invest eur 140 million, to maintain all the jobs Ascoval and create 133 new. But, in return, the company asked the shareholder Vallourec maintaining the volume of orders and prices during the eighteen months following the resumption.
But these conditions were rejected by Vallourec, which claims that the support requested by Altifort, amounted to 51 million euros, would be ” contrary to the preservation of the interests of the group “. The time limit decided by the Strasbourg court should enable to validate the record of recovery of Altifort and find an agreement with Vallourec
The government is cautious on this issue. Before any decision on a possible public support, it wants an independent opinion on the economic situation of the site. “We […] need it already put a little bit of rationality and to go to the merits of the case “, said, Thursday, in the evening, on Franceinfo the secretary of State for the economy, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
“Tomorrow [Friday], I will receive all of the actors. We will take point by point the record of recovery, […] see if Altifort can go until the end. ”
