What will become of the 200 employees on permanent contracts, the 8 professional contracts and the thirty temporary workers at the Vallourec site in Montbard, in Côte-d’Or? This plant, “Vallourec Bearing Tubes”, better known in the canton under the abbreviation VBT, has been producing steel tubes since 1965, particularly for the automotive sector. Staff representatives learned in October 2021 that the group was looking to sell the site, ideally by April 2022. After a meeting on Wednesday February 16, 2022 between management and staff, employees are beginning to see their future more clearly even if, in the meantime, their feelings are shared between relief and concern.
Two serious candidates?
“In my opinion, it will go very quickly, we will no longer be called Vallourec by the summer”, anticipates the union representative for the CGT, Franck Chesseron. After months of doubt, he tells us about the genesis of the takeover project : “There have been six company visits, four which have progressed to the second stage – an appointment at the headquarters in Paris with the executives of Vallourec. There are three which have launched an offer, our management is confident on of them”.
Employees should know more next week, since a new meeting between staff representatives and management is due to take place on Wednesday February 23. “We should know more about the future of our factory!”hopes Franck Chesseron, who joined Vallourec in 2005.
“What we fear is that it is a financier”
For the moment, it is not known what the profile of the two candidate companies is. “We hope it is an industrialist. What we fear is that it is a financier. That he comes and that there is no project behind it and that, in a year or two, this is not viable and that it will be a disaster. We want a strong industrialist, with solid backs, who comes with projects, orders, and who can sustain VBT over the long term”exposes the trade unionist Franck Chesseron.
A desire shared by the mayor of MontbardLaurence Porte: “There are buyers, it’s a good thing. It would be a great loss to see this industrial know-how, these human skills go. In a city that lives by its industry and where industry is in the city, a profile industry would be particularly interesting”.
Contacted, the local management of Vallourec does not wish to communicate on the subject.