The future of Clestra may be decided on Tuesday. A round table should bring together this morning, at the Ministry of Industry, elected officials and managers of the specialist in office partitions based near Strasbourg, whose employees have been on strike since the beginning of July, those who fear a dismantling.
The round table is planned “in order to take stock of the situation” of the company based in Illkirch-Graffenstaden (Bas-Rhin) “and to determine the ways and conditions of a possible resolution”, according to the email from the interministerial delegation. corporate restructuring.
The management of Clestra Metal, recently renamed Unterland Metal, “will participate in the round table”, indicated the latter, saying that she hopes that this meeting “will give rise to constructive discussions allowing us to foresee a way out of the conflict”. “We remain committed to ensuring the sustainability of the company’s activities,” continued management. According to her, her “recovery” project, presented last year when the company was taken over by the family group Jestia, “without impact on employment, is the only one capable of guaranteeing the rebound of activity. “.
“We want concrete progress”
Representatives of the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) will also be present, said Amar Ladraa, member of the CSE. According to him, “more than 90%” of the 140 employees have been on strike since July 3. They fear the dismantling of the company and ask for guarantees on the maintenance of employment and activity as according to them Jestia had committed to it in exchange for 5 million euros in public aid. “We want concrete progress […] We had three mediations which yielded nothing,” said the trade unionist. The employees “are determined” to continue the movement but if “we manage to find common ground […]work can resume immediately.
“We want jobs to be maintained and the transfer of all activities [de production] d’Illkirch” in progress towards the new site not far from there, at the autonomous port of Strasbourg, insisted Amar Ladraa. According to the CGT, these new premises are however much smaller than the current ones and the union fears that this transfer will eventually hide a reduction in activity and job cuts.
Rebellious elected officials expected on site on Wednesday
Several LFI deputies, including Mathilde Panot, leader of the Insoumis in the National Assembly, will come to support the strikers on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. in front of the company, announced in a press release the LFI deputy for Bas-Rhin, Emmanuel Fernandes. He welcomed the holding of this “first round table” at the Ministry of Industry. At the end of August, the general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet and the national secretary of the PCF Fabien Roussel came to support the strikers. Sophie Binet then denounced the “scandalous” situation in which this “flagship of French industry”, “world leader in office partitions” finds itself.
Founded in 1913 in Cleveland (United States) before setting up in Alsace, the company became French in 1989 under the name of Clestra, a contraction of Cleveland and Strasbourg. Clestra had been placed in receivership on August 1, 2022. Jestia had taken over most of the activities on the historic site of Illkirch last October, where 70 employees of the administrative and commercial branch, Clestra News, also work, according to the CGT.