Created in 1883, Poult biscuits belong to the industrial heritage of Montauban. Bought by a pension fund, job cuts and the closure of factory outlets have been announced. This Thursday, September 16, the employees organized a day of action. A first.
For 138 years, the Poult factory has been producing cookies at the Montauban site. In 2020, an investment fund bought the industrial site which hosts, in addition to the production lines, a factory outlet and the group’s head office. The new owner has decided on a social plan, provoking, for the first time, the mobilization of the employees of the biscuit factory.
Day of action in Montauban
The employees led, this Thursday, September 16, a day of action to oppose the social plan. 30 positions must be eliminated from the entire group. Factory outlets, allowing production to be sold directly to consumers, are also threatened with closure.
Lightning has already fallen on the Aire-sur-Adour site in the Landes: closure of the site and 46 jobs cut. Montalbanese employees have stopped work to show their support for their colleagues. But they are also worried about the fate of their working tool.
The unions believe that the company’s economic situation does not justify the social plan launched by management. According to them, the only explanation is purely financial. It’s all about giving dividends to shareholders.
First social conflict in a “model” factory
This is the first social conflict in the century-old Montauban factory. For ten years, Poult experimented with an original formula of governance, known as the liberated enterprise. From 2006 to 2016, the employees, many of whom are still in the group, freely managed their work organization.
The memory of this experience, still very present in the minds, makes it even more difficult to accept the decisions of the current owner.
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