The Aniche float will restart
In mid-September, the float Aniche restart. After an eternity. In April 2012, the furnace went out. After being trained in the new process, workers will produce new glass. But with a small change. Dedicated far the only building market, the site will now produce predominantly for the automobile.
After sixteen years of operation in April 2012, the glass furnace of Saint-Gobain Glass France was dying. But it was better for résuciter. By a company agreement signed in March 2011 by all unions, management pledged to invest 26.6 million for the modernization of the site Aniche. Bodes well for the plant, a thirty-five float glass production units of the Saint-Gobain Group worldwide. Except that the restart was much, much longer than initially announced. Of deferrals, the oven 350 meters long, will have remained more than four years off!
"We were expecting this news with impatience. Staff clung to restart ", recognizes, relieved, Christian Brice, who during all these years has drawn many bells, the Officer of Saint-Gobain France, policies ... What was the daily employees during these four years? Management has posted to some other sites. Of Anichois worked at the Saint-Gobain plant Eurofloat Salaise-sur-Sanne (Isère). It also has been shutdown to be equipped with a new oven. Homecoming of anichois workers who themselves have lost none of their experience (see below). "An oven, it does not call into heated overnight. It takes a month to get the correct glass, "says Christian Brice. The rebuilt furnace has a capacity increased to 670 tons / day against 600 tonnes / day in the former and reduced energy consumption by 15%. And it will not produce as glass for the building. "Its use will be mixed, automobile / construction, with a predominantly auto assignment," says management.
Set foot in the stirrup. For C. Brice is the number 1 concern for those employees who were no longer in contact with an oven. "We must reclaim the manufacturing process, become familiar again with the safety rules ...", means the union. Adding: "Everyone will be holding sleeves. It is not about to slow restart. This restart is excellent news for the labor pool. " In the coming months, staff will undergo a training program. Especially as the management indicated that it plans to hire twenty people. "Before the stop, we were 206. And I am not talking precarious and employees of subcontractors, C. Brice said. Currently we are 180
