Social crisis at Solvay, in Salindres: the Axens company will “place its staff on partial unemployment this week”

La direction d'Axens, dans le Gard, tire le signal d'alarme. Midi Libre – ALEXIS BETHUNE

Axens, through a press release, says it is “the victim of a situation that is completely foreign to it” and “must now resolve to abandon the hiring planned for 2025”.

In a press release, the Axens company, located in the Gard commune of Salindres, emphasizing that it is “one of the main employers in the Alès basin, with nearly 600 direct and indirect jobs”, indicated on Monday, October 7, that it “has been experiencing a very sharp slowdown in its activity for about ten days”. Management states that the plant “is undergoing a voluntary blocking of access and operations at the industrial site following the announcement by the Solvay group, on Tuesday, September 24, of its plan to cease activity on the site. These blockages concern free access to the platform, severely limiting raw material inputs and product deliveries, as well as stopping steam production."

A situation that "is expected to deteriorate further"

As a result, "today, 80% of Axens installations are shut down due to lack of steam supply". And to warn that “the economic situation of Axens is expected to deteriorate further in the coming days” and “will force the company to place its staff on partial unemployment this week”. Also, the company, “victim of a situation that is totally foreign to it”, fears that “this crisis” will have, “as a consequence, the loss of confidence of its customers, the drop in its turnover and the deterioration of its social climate" and announces “now and forth that it has decided to abandon the hiring planned for 2025".