The money invested by the State and Goodyear should make it possible to modernize and digitize the site “for a more sustainable production”, indicated the services of Prime Minister Jean Castex.
Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Thursday a grant of 44.6 million euros to modernize the Goodyear site in Amiens-Sud, the American group committing to invest around 100 million in this factory of 800 employees.
This subsidy, which remains subject to the approval of the European Commission, is part of the government’s France Relance plan, intended to reindustrialize the territory and promote innovation.
«Investing in our industry means regaining our sovereignty, it means being less dependent“, declared Jean Castex during a speech on the site of the factory.
«See what happens when a country unilaterally decides to attack a democracy“, he developed in reference to the war in Ukraine. “Of course, there are penalties. These show the dependence in which we find ourselves (…) especially on the industrial segments.»
The unions were informed of this investment during a CSE on Wednesday evening.
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The site threatened with closure without this grant
Without this subsidy, the site was threatened with closure “in four or five years” Due to “competition in Eastern Europe“, told AFP the president of Amiens Métropole, Alain Gest (LR), present on the spot.
The money invested by the State and Goodyear should make it possible to modernize and digitize the site “for more sustainable production“, indicated the services of the Prime Minister.
In January 2014, another Goodyear site in the city, the Amiens-Nord factory, specializing in the manufacture of agricultural tires, closed its doors, after a standoff of more than six years between staff and management, leading to the dismissal of 1,143 people.
The American group had been condemned in May 2020 for unfair dismissal by the industrial tribunal, which had considered that the economic difficulties of the French subsidiary alone were not sufficient to justify the economic reason.
Goodyear had to pay compensation at least equivalent to the last six months of gross salary to nearly 800 employees who had attacked him.
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