Michelin
Two factories flattened and more than 1,200 employees on the floor: Michelin announced on Tuesday the closure before 2026 of its Cholet and Vannes sites, blaming “the collapse” of sales of truck and van tires.
The management of the French tire manufacturer announced this closure Tuesday morning to the 1,254 employees of these two factories in western France, who had been fearing it for several weeks.
In Vannes, “the announcement, made by the director, was greeted with great silence. Everyone is reeling,” said Eric Boisgard, an employee since 2004 and former CGT union representative.
In Cholet, “they put the 900 employees in a room like cows in the slaughterhouse and announced that it was over,” Morgane Royer, an employee for “nearly 10 years” and a SUD union representative, told AFP. “We saw colleagues collapse because they were still in denial.”
“For months, we had been asking ourselves questions,” stressed Romain Déchenau, a CFDT union representative. “There were investments, work. They gave us hope, but it was all smoke and mirrors.”
The employees blocked the site shortly after the management's announcements, which had planned to stop production until November 13 anyway.
“Either they keep our jobs, or they pay us until we retire,” declared the secretary of the CGT, David Goubault, into the microphone.
“They have exploited us for years. Us, our parents for some, our children for others. We must not be satisfied with what they give us. It is not by going home and being morose that this will be discussed. We will have to start a fight,” added Mr. Goubault.
– Market slowdown –
Michelin is going through a difficult year with the slowdown in the new vehicle market and Asian competition.
“It is the collapse of activity that has caused this situation, and I want to tell all these employees that we will not leave anyone by the wayside,” declared the CEO of Michelin, Florent Menegaux, in an interview with AFP.
Michelin had already significantly reduced its footprint in France, its first country. With Poitiers, Toul, Joué-lès-Tours and La Roche-sur-Yon, it will have closed six factories in twenty years.
The Minister of Industry Marc Ferracci reacted on Tuesday by asking for “an exemplary support plan for employees and territories”.
The Bibendum is not the only one coughing. The sharp slowdown in the automobile market is causing serious difficulties for European equipment manufacturers and site closures are continuing.
According to Michelin, these closures have become “inevitable” due to Asian competition in light truck and heavy goods vehicle tires, the sectors of the Cholet and Vannes plants.
Michelin's CEO also blamed a “slow deterioration in competitiveness” in Europe, particularly linked to energy costs, which is preventing exports. The group is also preparing to close two factories in Germany by 2025.
The national secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, condemned these closures on Tuesday, after announcing them on Sunday. “The automobile industry continues to lay off workers, using Chinese imports as a pretext. A lie! Margins on the one hand and energy costs on the other are responsible,” he said on X.
– “Without prospects” –
The large factory in Cholet (Maine-et-Loire) employs 955 people, who mainly manufacture small tires for vans, a segment in “significant decline” in Europe “with no prospects of recovery,” Michelin justifies.
The Vannes site (Morbihan) has 299 employees who mainly produce metal cables for heavy-duty tires heavy.
Michelin is committed to “supporting each of the employees concerned with tailor-made solutions”, with job offers in other companies or within the group, or early retirement.
It also promises to “participate in the creation of at least as many jobs as those eliminated” in the region, as it did in La Roche-sur-Yon, where 635 jobs were created in four years for 613 jobs eliminated, the group indicates.
Michelin also plans to propose to the unions a “Michelin Industrie France 2030” plan, which should allow, according to the company, “French sites and their employees to better plan for the future future”.
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