After giving some sense that victory seemed sure to him, Emmanuel Macron returns to the country, on Wednesday in his hometown, Amiens to meet stewards of the Whirlpool plant, and before a meeting tonight in Arras. But Marine Le Pen decided to visit Whirlpool factory instead.
In this land of Hauts de France, where Le Pen came in first, Emmanuel Macron, the leader of En Marche! Was long awaited by employees of the US group.
They learned there three months, the closure of this factory has 290 employees, which would result in the loss of 250 temporary quasi-permanent, and a hundred subcontractor employees. The production of their dryer factory (that produces 600,000 units out of the factory every year), will be relocated to Poland, where labor is two to three times cheaper. The plant still had 1,300 employees there fifteen years.
After expressing a defense on the 18th April, employees set up a picket line at the entrance to the plant, and production is interrupted.
Macron in the CCI
This is not the plant that Emmanuel Macron went to meet employees of Whirlpool. The meeting was held with representatives of the unions at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This was explained for security reasons.
For there is “anger” among employees of the American group of electrical appliances. “For three months we request his support. His support and a visit, said Frédéric Chantrelle, CFDT delegate. So we do not really know what reception employees have booked him. “
“The Whirlpool group is still making a lot of money. And we, we are relocating, he continued this morning by telephone. Mr Macron, it is more on the side of finance. We, we are workers. We earn 1500 € per month. People at the bottom, like us, no one listens. We still have to make action to voice our dismay. While people here, all they wanted was to keep their job “ .
And during that time, Marine Le Pen …
But bombshell, while a crowd of nearly 300 accredited journalists waiting for Emmanuel Macron to speak after his meeting with the delegates, we learn that Marine Le Pen has cut the grass under the feet of the candidate from En Marche! by going at the same time before the Whirlpool factory … A well-orchestrated surprise visit with walkabout and selfies session with employees.
“I’m here alongside employees in the parking lot, not in Amiens restaurants”, she told the press while with the employees who make the selfies. “Obviously this is a message” in the countryside, she told AFP.
Immediately, the management of Whirlpool criticized in a written statement the “instrumentalisation” of an “industrial case” .
“When I heard,” said Marine Le Pen, “Emmanuel Macron came here and he did not intend to meet the employees, he had not come on this picket line, but he was sheltered in some sort of chamber of commerce meeting room for 2-3 picked people, I found that it was a proof so much contempt for what employees from Whirlpool, that I decided to leave my strategic committee and come to you “ .
Marine Le Pen herself as the candidate “workers” and “workers” .
Macron this afternoon with employees
Speaking to the press after meeting with the unions, Emmanuel Macron has announced his side that he would meet in the afternoon employees of Whirlpool Amiens site in the company of representatives of the unions of business.
“Marine Le Pen is coming to Amiens because this is where I am from. Welcome to it. But Marine Le Pen did not understand how to work the land and we will definitely not have the same ambition, nor the same project “ .
“With the unions, we agreed that I will travel this afternoon to meet with employees, with the unions”, said Mr Macron. “If you do not speak to representatives of employees, but you’ll do demagoguery, invective and false promises, you do not set any problems of the country”. But “the the unions has been exemplary in the Whirlpool conflict in Amiens” , said the candidate from En March!.
