Reportage. An explosion took place in the EURENCO powder factory in Bergerac. There were eight injuries, one of them serious. Commentary on factual images, illustration images, archive images alternate with interviews with Yannick ALBUCHER, witness, Jean-Charles JOBART, sub-prefect of Bergerac and Jonathan PRIOLEAUD, mayor of Bergerac.
Crisis meeting this morning at the Bergerac blowing snow, concern of the CGT about the relocation to Finland and the total stop in 2007 of the powder manufacturing, for which the company employs half of the 135 employees of the site. The union has just commissioned a firm of experts to study the possible dangers, safety would be questioned by the lack of staff. The employees turn to the state to guarantee the future of the Bergerac site.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Bergerac powder mill had nearly 15,000 employees. Today, the SNPE has been divided into several entities and one of the subsidiaries is being privatized. Only 30% of the staff would be kept. If the Spanish group buys the company, it is the flagship product of the SNPE (Bergerac NC) that will no longer be manufactured in France. The mayor of the city has a bitter taste.
Michèle Alliot-Marie, Minister of Defence, ordered 20,000 cases to be made at the SNPE Eurenco blowing snow gallery in January 2006. It also announced the establishment of a new workshop in 2008 that will equip guns for the French Army. The Bergerac company lost 900 jobs over 10 years. This order will ensure the sustainability of the industrial site with the creation of 30 additional positions, from 2008. Alternately, comment on images of the factory then interviews with André MENGELLE, Eurenco director "SNPE group" and Patrick LORGUE, CGT.
The SPNE (Société Nationale des Poudres et Explosifs) decided to sell the factory of its group Bergerac NC (Bergerac Nitro Cellulose), former blowing snow, which employs 380 employees who produce components used in the manufacture of varnishes and paints for civil. The unions fear closure.