The American automotive supplier BorgWarner has just announced the closure, for March 2022, of its factory in Eyrein, in Corrèze. A social disaster for the 368 employees and a fatal prospect for the Tulle industrial basin, which would lose its main business.
“The BorgWarner earthquake”, headline, Friday, June 26, regional daily The mountain, witnessing the shock of an announcement as violent as it was unexpected for the Tullist population. The closure of this modern factory, the only French establishment of the Chicago automotive supplier that employs some 29,000 people worldwide, has stunned political and economic circles.
Since November 1995 and the acquisition by BorgWarner of the Company of factories of the brand (SUM), an old site enclosed in the city of Tulle, which manufactured solenoid valves for the automotive industry, hope had partly returned in this valley of Corrèze. While the ancestral arms factory (GIAT industries), which had occupied up to 2,000 people there, was living in endless agony, substantial public funds allowed this recovery with commitments in terms of jobs. The fact that the new mayor of Tulle, the very Chiraquien Raymond-Max Aubert, was secretary of state for regional development of the Juppé government did not harm this affair.
Stunned unions
Year after year, the commitments were respected by the Michigan investor, under the watchful eye of François Hollande, the new mayor of Tulle. In 2006, the horizon seems clear with the construction of a brand new factory in the industrial area of Eyrein, 15 km from the city. The American company added 10 million euros in investment in 2010 to install a new production line for automatic gearbox control modules. The forecasts are enthusiastic, and the site then employs nearly 650 employees, including 150 temporary workers.
From 2016, the reduction of an order book mainly supplied by Volkswagen-Audi leads to reductions in load and jobs. The German manufacturer’s rigged software scandal and developments in the car market have not helped matters. Especially since the diversification of activities, demanded by the unions, did not come. The workforce has been reduced to less than 400 employees, but no one, until this week, expected such an outcome. “With our know-how, our experience, we could imagine a social plan, but not a closure of the site”, said the company’s CGT and FO delegates, stunned.
Fall in turnover and losses
The management of the site tried to put the forms by explaining the situation to each of the positions in 3 × 8. “Between 2017 and 2019, turnover fell by more than 40%, she said. Losses of around 6.8 million euros are anticipated for 2020. “ Result: the first departures will take place from January 2021, until March 2022, the date announced for the closure of the factory.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 1is July, with an extraordinary Social and Economic Committee (ESC), preambles to negotiations which should start the next day, and for four months. By then, the unions intend to trigger a mobilization of all the forces of the department around their cause, once the effect of dumbfounding.
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