La wave of redundancy plans currently affecting the country spares no one, not even union leaders. Visit president of CFE-CGCFrançois Hommeril has been added to the list of those made redundant. He is “exempt from activity He has been working at his plant since October 25, and his dismissal is due to take effect in “the coming weeks”.he told AFP confirming a report in the daily Le Monde.

François Hommeril was “engineer, in charge of a process department”. and shop steward at Niche Fused Alumina, a company placed in receivership. On October 25, the Chambéry Commercial Court ruled that the site had been taken over by the industrial company Alteo, which is shedding 51 employees.

During the reorganization procedure, the union leader made no secret of the fact that the site was being taken over by Alteo. having “called on his address book and invested himself at the highest level of government”. for “that a buyer comes along”.. “The buyer is only taking on 119 employees. There are some who are not being taken over, and that’s my case.” “The commercial court’s decision was reserved for a Friday. That day, me and the others, since there are 51 people concerned, received a message and a phone call, where we were told: ‘You’re excused from activity, you’re going home, goodbye’. That’s it, it’s as simple as that”.explained 63-year-old François Hommeril over the phone.

Staying at the helm of CFE-CGC

“In 26 years, I’ve never wanted to leave the plant, I wanted to stay, I live right across the street.”underlined the union leader, still touched by “the brutality of the announcement. “Everything happens as if you were coming home in the evening. Night has fallen, it’s a bit chilly, you take out your key but it doesn’t work. You can’t get in. Someone opens the door and says: “You’re not at home anymore. It’s a moment that can do a lot of harm”.François Hommeril to Le Monde.

However, as a trade union delegate, his dismissal still has to be approved by a vote of the company’s CSE elected representatives and the labor inspector. Thus, “the dismissal will take place in the coming weeks”.he says, without giving any further details. In the meantime, the union leader, who still has a year and a half to work to pay off his pension, remains at the helm of CFE-CGC until June 2026.

Last week, following announcements of job cuts at Auchan and Michelin, the French government said it was expecting a large number of redundancy plans in France over the next few months. According to the CGT, a total of 150,000 people could be affected.