Approximately 200 employees and union representatives of GE Vernova, which consolidates General Electric’s energy activities, gathered Thursday morning in Nantes to protest against proposed job cuts at two sites in Loire-Atlantique.
The rally was organized at the behest of the CFE-CGC and the CGT, which count 360 threatened positions: 220 at the Nantes site and 140 at Montoir-de-Bretagne. Management has not confirmed these job cuts to AFP.
Demonstration and Union Demands
In front of the prefecture, where a union delegation was received late in the morning, a banner was displayed bearing the message: “Tomorrow’s industry is built today: let’s save offshore wind energy.” “Our expertise and know-how are recognized. The government wants to invest in offshore wind energy. Yet, if the state does nothing, production could eventually disappear,” states Cyrille Gohier, CFE-CGC union delegate.
GE Vernova, which has been consolidating General Electric’s energy activities since the April split from the American conglomerate, manufactured the nacelles for the wind farm installed off the coast of Saint-Nazaire at its Montoir-de-Bretagne site and worked on the Dogger Bank wind farm in the United Kingdom.
Appeal to Government for Support
“We are here to call on the government: employees are defending the public interest today. We need offshore wind energy for the ecological transition and we need local production. Otherwise, we could end up making wind energy in France with Chinese wind turbines,” said Matthias Tavel, LFI deputy of Loire-Atlantique.
In mid-September, the group’s management told AFP that it had presented “a project to GE Vernova’s European works council regarding planned transformations of its offshore wind activity globally.” In March, GE had already confirmed “adjustments” to its subcontractors’ workforce at Montoir-de-Bretagne.
Union Demands and Perspectives
“The order books are empty after 2027. We are waiting for the government to take responsibility to save the sites,” explained Véronique Lacoste, CGT union representative at Montoir-de-Bretagne. The state must “ensure the scaffolding” during the “low” period after 2027 and until new productions are confirmed, according to Matthias Tavel, for whom the nationalization of the sites is “not a totem but not a taboo either.”
GE Vernova employs a total of 75,000 people worldwide, including 7,500 in France, primarily in the wind energy sector. The current situation highlights the challenges faced by the sector amid economic uncertainties and changes in the energy market.
