“We can use the premises to do something else”, pleads a union delegate to the management of Nestlé

About fifty employees came on Wednesday, April 5, to make a lot of noise, in the quiet street of the headquarters of Nestlé France in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine). “It was already a mess on the bus, from the start it was a mess, given how we were disgusted with their announcements”says Guillaume, who has worked for two years at the Caudry plant (North). On March 30, management announced the permanent closure of this plant Buitoni, questioned in the deaths of two children from pizzas contaminated with E.coli bacteria. A week later, Wednesday April 5, these employees came to support the delegation received by the management of Nestlé. After an hour of discussion, nothing has progressed according to union representatives. The management of Nestlé France maintains the announced closure and reaffirms its desire to seek a buyer for the Caudry site.

>> Closure of the Buitoni factory in Caudry: “Nestlé will have to be accountable”, says Foodwatch

Like other employees, Guillaume believed that the factory would pull through after the discovery of bacteria in frozen pizzas. “We were made to hope for 13 months of a recovery, a tonnage of 3,500 tonnes of production and, as things went, it deteriorated, and it deteriorated further until the last announcement, in us explaining that they did not know how to take back the consumers.”

“The management does not assume, it does not take its responsibilities when it is its fault!”

Guillaume, employee of the Buitoni factory in Caudry (Nord)

at franceinfo

“We had nothing to do with everything that happened. We’ve come to this, we’re going to pay for the pots when it’s not our fault at all, abounds Alexandre, who worked for 30 years in Caudry. Today, I want Nestlé to recognize all this, and to find a solution for us. Last week, when they announced the closure to us, they told us that we were in no way responsible.”

The solution is to maintain employment, according to Valérie Bracq, UNSA union delegate at the Buitoni factory. “Keep a job, that’s what we want, and a job on site because there are a lot of people who are not mobile. That’s what we asked them for months, before “to have the announcement of the closure: that they give us volume because Nestlé has several factories in France. Make us do anything! We have a factory that can produce, we can absolutely use the premises to do something else”. Buitoni employees say they are ready to produce for another Nestlé brand, or change groups. But for that, they say, you need a solid buyer.

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Last Friday, the Minister Delegate for Industry, Roland Lescure, assured France Bleu Nord “share the sadness” And “to understand” the anger of the employees of the Buitoni factory in Caudry, after Nestlé’s decision to close its site, a year after the contaminated pizza affair. “I am looking for a buyer and we will do everything to find one”he said.