Since Wednesday already, the fifty employees of the Tereos sugar factory in Escaudoeuvres (North) can count on the support of their elected officials and local residents. The entrance doors to the site have been blocked to “oppose the announced shutdown of production” since Wednesday, but the higher gear to be heard was engaged this Sunday while waiting firmly on Monday, the Minister of l Industry Roland Lescure. The latter indeed comes to meet the union representatives and the management. This gathering organized by the town hall, counts, according to the prefecture, about 400 people including 50 employees, and 25 elected officials.
Gathered for more than two hours in the middle of the day, “elected representatives of the agglomeration community, regional councillors, deputies, mayors, former employees, relatives, and inhabitants very attached to the sugar refinery”, detailed the mayor of Escaudoeuvres, Thierry Bouteman, expressed their dissatisfaction with the site of the sugar refinery.
The support of the town hall and elected officials
“Since Wednesday the factory has been blocked, the employees are present day and night. We wanted to reaffirm our support for them, and our opposition to the decisions of the group, ”he continued. “Nothing goes in, nothing leaves the site. We continue to fight. There are still 40,000 tons in the silo. Tereos will have to explain itself, ”assured Loïc Lagouche, CGT deputy secretary at the CSE. “Tomorrow we will say to the minister: it is incomprehensible (to close) a factory as profitable as ours, with the Seine Nord canal which will one day pass just behind. Tereos only thinks in the short term”, he regretted.
The historic site of the group, owner of Béghin Say, was soon to celebrate its 150th anniversary in this town of 3,300 inhabitants. But on Wednesday, management announced its closure by mid-June, and the elimination of 123 positions. According to the sugar producer, this choice is essentially dictated by a “sustainable reduction” in beet production in 2023-2024, with, in the Escaudoeuvres sector, a drop in sown areas of more than 10%.
“We fell out of our chairs. The employees say that the site is viable, I believe them. The savings represented would be 40 million in five years. For a group which makes six billion euros in turnover, it smells of confusion, ”commented LFI deputy from the North David Guiraud, present on Sunday. Wednesday, as part of the day of mobilization against the pension reform, the cambraisienne intersyndicale relocates its demonstration to Escaudoeuvres. A “solidarity march” will also be organized by the elected officials on Sunday March 19, in “replacement” of the festivities planned for the 150th anniversary.