Ford-Blanquefort: event in Bordeaux to defend jobs on march 9, 2018 (Photo GEORGES GOBET. AFP)
Nearly 200 people marched Saturday in Bordeaux to support the employees of the factory Ford (NYSE:F), Blanquefort (Gironde) where the vehicle manufacturer has announced the end of production in 2019, threatening 900 jobs, has found an AFP journalist.
On the 27th of February, Ford has announced that there would be more production in his factory Ford Aquitaine Industries (FAI) beyond 2019 and that the group was seeking a buyer for the site of manufacture of gear boxes located in the bordeaux conurbation since 1972.
The gathering was organized at the call of the unions CGT, FO, CFTC. At the head of the procession, carried a banner that read : “Ford to save all the jobs, it is possible”. Workers, trade unionists, elected representatives, activists of left parties and far-left were present.
“The buyer we don’t want to, it is a sub-contract to closing, and in the end, it closes ! Ford does not want to close the factory directly,” said AFP Philippe Poutou, a delegate of the CGT and former presidential candidate. “If one accepts the idea of the buyer behind it said +Ford you can go+. This is not acceptable after all the public aid received”, he added.
“We want to sensitize public opinion on the disengagement of Ford because we are moving towards a close, very close,” explains Frédéric Peter, elected CFTC. “We have reached the productivity goals set by Ford, there was social peace and, finally, Ford farm. Their decision was stopped long time,” said a trade unionist who finds “the impotence of the political”.
According to the unions, since 2013, Ford has received a total of 50 million euros of public funding in exchange for the guarantee of maintaining a thousand jobs on the site for five years. But the agreement ends at the end of may, which, according to elected officials and trade unionists, is no stranger to the ad, Ford of Europe to leave its factory in the gironde department.
Friday, Bordeaux Metropolis, which is part of the commune of Blanquefort, announced that it was not would not the car manufacturer Ford the last third of its state aid planned, that would amount to 680.000€.
