2023-10-15 03:30:00
Sometimes, Xavier Bertrand likes to remind us that he had a life before politics. “I am a former insurer. Until a contract is signed, it is not signed. » On the Caudry side (North), hope is finally reborn. Shut down since March, the Buitoni factory, which employed 140 people, could soon find a buyer. It was Roland Lescure, Minister of Industry, who announced it to La Tribune Sunday : “We should see firm offers being made within a few weeks. » Really ? Or will we have to wait until next year in a case with many twists and turns? “Waiting until 2024 is an option that I am not considering, assures the minister. We were doing the food industry in Caudry before Buitoni, we will do it after. » An optimism that the president of the Hauts-de-France Region is wary of: “Yes, it seems on track, but I’m waiting to see, resumes Xavier Bertrand. These people did not behave well. Their attitude was unacceptable. I don’t trust them. »
Escherichia coli
Not so long ago, the Caudry industrial site brought joy to the Region. Home of luxury lace for two hundred years, the town of 14,000 inhabitants, located 15 kilometers southeast of Cambrai, also produced 200,000 Buitoni pizzas per day. But, at the start of 2022, products contaminated by the bacteria Escherichia coli leave the factory and are marketed throughout France. No one knows the exact number of people poisoned, the vast majority of whom are children. Kelig, 2 and a half years old, and Nathan, 8 years old, die. Nearly 70 others are hospitalized, sometimes in intensive care. Some of them will have neurological, renal and cardiac after-effects all their lives simply for having eaten a Fraîch’Up frozen pizza. Asked by Correspondent for an investigation broadcast in October 2022, Kelig’s father burst into tears: “You think you’re making your child happy and in fact you’re killing them. » Since then, the “Buitoni” have been regularly insulted and called murderers.
Founded in 1827 by Giulia Boninsegni and her husband Giovanni Buitoni, the famous brand was bought by Nestlé in 1988. Former owner of Mousline puree and Knacki sausages, Nestlé remains the leading agri-food group in the world with a galaxy of entities: Vittel, Hépar, Contrex, Perrier, San Pellegrino; Nespresso, Nescafé, Nesquik, Ricoré, Chocapic, KitKat, Lion; small jars for children and Guigoz and Nidal milks; Maggi; Friskies or Purina pet food. Latest results, according to management: sales growth of 8.4% in 2022; annual forecasts for 2023 revised upwards (end of July), counting on a range of 7 to 8%.
At the end of last year, nine months after pizza manufacturing stopped, one of the two production lines was relaunched in Caudry.
“Management told us that customers were always present, that large retailers trusted us with at least 70 or 80%, relates Stéphane Derammelaere, Force Ouvrière union delegate. We believed in it. And then, on March 2, we fell out of the closet. Eventually, distributors no longer wanted our products. »
Negotiations then begin between the group, the Ministry of Industry and the Region to come up with a satisfactory employment protection plan (PSE).
Employee reclassifications
“If things go badly for employment, we will make them miserable, promises one of the executives of the Hauts-de-France Region, very worried. We can very well stop ordering products for high schools, propose to the departmental council to do the same for colleges, call for a boycott and harm their image. This is what they fear the most. They showed great cynicism. »
Certainly, Nestlé has reclassified a certain number of employees in other sites belonging to it. Contacted by La Tribune Sundaythe group, which confirms that a PSE agreement was signed on July 12 and that“no dismissals will be notified before December 31”, continues to pay employees and has committed to paying 5 million euros (as much as the Region and the communities of communes of Cambrésis and Caudry) to finance a local reindustrialization fund. But for the mayor of Caudry, Frédéric Bricout, the damage is done: “A company in the food industry seems very interested. In the meantime, Nestlé will never be able to pay off its debt. They did too much harm. The employees were insulted, dragged through the mud, and the group never defended them. There is a feeling of betrayal and disgust. People are mad at Nestlé. » Roland Lescure shares this sentiment: “The employees feel like the collateral victims of a tragedy for which they are in no way responsible. »
“Endangering the lives of others” for Foodwatch
Meanwhile, what is the status of the lawsuits filed by the victims’ families? A Parisian investigating judge continues her investigation. Where did the contamination of products manufactured in Caudry come from? Flour, probably. But if Nestlé France, which is not currently indicted, has accused its suppliers, other avenues lead to a lack of cleanliness, in particular storage silos. Experts and employees also highlight the fact that the factory had recently been supplied with non-heated flour, not cooked beforehand. Cheaper, but more permeable to bacteria. Perhaps the investigation will tell. The Foodwatch association also filed a complaint in May 2022 for seven serious offenses, including “endangering the lives of others”.
A Toulouse lawyer, Pierre Debuisson, defended the vast majority of plaintiffs. On the home page of his website there is a screenshot depicting him during the investigationCorrespondent. At the home of one of the two bereaved families, we see him expressing indignation that, “ten months after the facts, no hearing of the victims, no indictment” has not taken place. “It’s a total aberration. » At the start of 2023, the lawyer promised a “class action, the first in France”, and was determined to have the multinational condemned. Then, overnight, nothing. Unreachable. The reason ? An agreement signed on March 31. Money in exchange for total silence from him and the families and the abandonment of all prosecution. No one knows the amount of the sum paid by Nestlé. We just know that Me Debuisson demanded 250 million euros in damages in the event of conviction. In 2022, Nestlé claimed a total sales volume amounting to 97.4 billion euros.
On this subject, the group explains to La Tribune Sunday : “Each of the people concerned will receive a compensation proposal from Nestlé France which will follow a medical assessment.cal and which will take into account, in an equitable manner, the seriousness of the harm and each situation. As part of the criminal procedure, Nestlé France continues to collaborate with the judicial authorities. »
Conviction for harassment
At the beginning of 2023, Nestlé finally accepted the sentence and paid 2 million Swiss francs (2.07 million euros). Nothing surprises the expert in the Buitoni affair: “I expected it sooner or later. Nestlé displays an arrogance and blindness linked to the size and power of the company. They know that in the event of a problem they can buy the silence of the victims. However, I noticed that Nestlé’s management was riddled with flaws, with resistance to improvement. Contrary to their slogan that food safety is a non-negotiable priority, any improvement was akin to rowing against the tide and did not flow naturally. »
Yasmine Motarjemi ensures that in 2005, “following a recall of infant milk contaminated by traces of a chemical component of the ink on the packaging, Nestlé linked managers’ bonuses to the withdrawal of the products”. She continues: “If the problem can go undetected, managers have an incentive not to remove the products. So, what confidence can we have in their products? » What does she think of the amicable settlement with the victims’ families? “If I had lost a child in such a situation, I would never have made a deal, because the money will not bring them back. But you should know that in my case the procedure lasted twelve years. Nestlé used all means to destroy me. It is therefore understandable that parents want to limit the damage to their family. »
In France, a lawyer is still fighting against the Swiss giant. A food safety specialist, Me Nathalie Goutaland defends four families whose children were also poisoned by pizza, including a little girl who had to be hospitalized for kidney damage.
“My clients do not want money as a priority, they first want to understand how the health of their children could have been put at risk, explains the latter. In this file, to which access will have been complicated, Nestlé but also the control services may have had failures. I was the first to raise the fact that the factory de Caudry, at the time the affair broke out, did not have the health approval to produce these pizzas composed partly but not entirely of processed foods. It’s simply incredible. According to the information brought to my attention, the administrative status of the site did not comply with the legislation. We need to be able to know the truth, and this matter should not be hushed up, which I have no intention of letting happen. »
“Nestlé is an octopus”
Richard Ramos is one of the rare parliamentarians to have been outraged by the death of the two children, the health scandal and the fate of the factory. The MP (MoDem) for Loiret has long hoped for the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry. “Nestlé is an octopus, he accuses. And the lack of reaction from the government is indicative of the disconnection of elites with the people and the weight of lobbies. » The day he learned of the amicable agreement with the families, he knew that the project would probably fail. “For these people, money is superior to politics and legality. What could I do without families? But the criminal proceedings are still open. I have this folder on my desktop and I don’t want to close it. » If the possibility of one day attending a Buitoni trial has not disappeared, the possibility of a major national debate is diminishing. “When you want to set up a commission of inquiry, you need allies, deciphers a former Minister of Health. Now… Now that the families have been paid, that the factory will be closed…” She simply adds that, “Certainly, that does not prevent a trial from taking place.” And if not, ” personally “, She will never buy a Buitoni pizza again.
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#cynicism #pass