Spring has arrived, but it’s still cold. The sun timidly penetrates the veranda of the Café des Sports. It is 2 p.m. at the end of March in Château-Thierry (Aisne), and the town of 15,000 inhabitants seems sleepy. Behind the counter, the bistro manager is busy, putting away the remains of lunch. She has been running this establishment located a hundred meters from the LU-Belin factory for seventeen years, and she has seen the workers arrive every lunchtime to order a daily special and fill out a Lotto grid. The guys from the factory are a bit at home here. The café also serves as headquarters for union meetings and as a hangout for a drink after the work day. Of course, before, there were more of them, almost 300 twenty years ago. But there were the social plans, the takeovers, by Danone, by the American company Kraft Foods, and finally by the American multinational Mondelez. Little by little, the workforce was reduced, permanent contracts eliminated, there are only around sixty today. For the city’s inhabitants, however, the factory, which manufactures Pépito biscuits, remained an indestructible company, almost a century old, a part of their heritage.
Until January 31, 2024. A morning like any other. A bit more cheerful, even. The day before, LU employees received a congratulatory message from Mondelez, informing them of the record figures for this year 2023, with more than 5 million profits. This shows their incomprehension when they see the industrial director of the site arrive. “I have come to inform you of our intention to close the factory by the end of 2025.” Club blow. The reasons given, dilapidated premises, lack of profitability and soaring production costs, leave the workers perplexed. We detail the timetable for them: a gradual cessation of activities until a complete shutdown, the relocation of part of the production to the Czech Republic, the rest to Pays de la Loire. To relocate ? For many, this is unthinkable. Some have just taken out a loan, invested in real estate, three couples work together in the factory. Find a buyer? Yes, there may still be hope. But this announcement is also that of a struggle to come, and the employees are not prepared for it. They have to learn on the job. The elected union officials are mobilizing, those of the CFDT and the CFE-CGC.
The RN asks the question in the hemicyl
Get organized, first of all, find relays, above all. Very quickly, the local deputy became interested in the matter. His name is Jocelyn Designy, elected from the National Rally. The far-right party is popular in Aisne. In the second round of the presidential election, Marine Le Pen received almost 60% of the votes. In the legislative elections of June 2022, 3 of the 5 elected deputies came from the ranks of the RN. In Château-Thierry, it’s a little different. In June 2022, the inhabitants of the commune preferred the candidate of La France insoumise (55% of the votes) to Jocelyn Dessigny, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (27.08%) to Marine Le Pen (24.9%) in the first round of the presidential election. Here, we still believe in the left, in its ability to mobilize for the workers. But the RN is there too, and the MP is there, so we make do.
At the beginning of February, we received Jocelyn Designy at the factory. He takes the time to move around, to listen, and seems to understand. “Our only means of pressure is to get people talking about Mondelez, and all the relays are good,” insists David Romedenne, elected CFDT. Two days later, at the National Assembly, the Frontist deputy spoke out for the workers and questioned Bruno Le Maire on the subject during questions to the government. “When the American group Mondelez announces the closure of a factory in Château-Thierry, it is the entire department of Aisne which suffers,” declaims the parliamentarian. From the National Assembly to the Senate you advance proudly, nose to the wind to praise your merits on reindustrialization, but the reality is bursting before our eyes: the Pépito created in Château-Thierry will now be manufactured in the Czech Republic. How do you concretely plan to work to save these jobs?”
The PS wakes up
In front of his television screen, in Château-Thierry, Amine Abdelmadjid almost chokes. PS municipal councilor and child of the city, he knows to what extent the subject of the Belin factory stirs the collective memory of the inhabitants. “I told myself that if we did not intervene at that time, we would leave as the only response to the despair of the people of the territory the disappointment of Macronie or the emerging hope of the RN.” The same evening, at the Lens community council, he lost his temper a little. “Are we still the PS, or not? It’s our responsibility to make a left-wing discourse exist, otherwise, it’s no longer of any use, and I’m handing in my card.” Phew. The party takes up the subject and activates its networks. The neighboring left-wing MP, Jean-Louis Bricout, gets involved in the negotiations, contacts Business France. Employees are received at the National Assembly, the Senate, and also at the ministry, where they meet with the chief of staff of Roland Lescure, minister responsible for industry.
On February 16, the left and the far right marched together in the streets of the city alongside employees. At the factory, nothing is stopped. Production continues, while negotiations begin. Mondelez’s proposals do not suit them, but they want to put on a good show. Nor is it a matter of discouraging a potential buyer. Even if, in the city, rumors are already rife. It seems that we already know what will become of the premises once the closure takes effect. We discuss it during the smoke break. Nobody really wants to believe it. Discussions with elected officials from all sides continue. Jocelyn Dessigny informs them of the meetings held at the sub-prefecture, but no national party executive makes the trip. On March 20, national representatives of the PS, including the Landes deputy Boris Vallaud, came to meet them. The latter warns the bosses: “Do you know that a social plan at the moment is oil for the extreme right?” Awkward silence.
“We know that elected officials use us”
The employees are not fooled. “We are in an electoral period, we know well that elected officials, of all sensibilities, use us, we can do nothing against political recovery, so it might as well serve us,” confides Eric, union representative. Small victory: the search time to find a buyer has been extended to six months. The next negotiation meeting will take place on April 17; depending on the outcome, we are considering a toughening of the tone among employees, where nerves are beginning to be tested. The announcements follow one another and carry their share of emotion. Since February, Mondelez workers have become the center of attention, assailed by the press, torn between dozens of interlocutors and the object of a battle that goes beyond them. That between the left and the far right, who are competing for worker representation. They still only hope to keep their job or simply leave in the best conditions.
On the Gustave-Belin bridge which adjoins the large yellow and blue building with its aging wooden windows, a half-unhooked banner flutters in the wind. It reads: “94 years silenced, no to factory closure.” We can almost see it from the Café des Sports, where the owner had time to see some workers from Château-Thierry left behind. She simply hopes that these will not join the ranks, because all the residents today share the same observation: “You know, there is no more work in Château-Thierry.”
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