Several employees have also blocked access to the site

Trade unions and the direction of Caterpillar, gathered yesterday at the Ministry of economy, in Paris, were the last hand to 22 hours a protocol of end of conflict, to be submitted by referendum to employees within 48 hours, said Pierre Piccarreta (CGT). He refused to give any clarification on the content of the text, but, he said, "the CGT believes that it can be presented to the staff." The Protocol will be submitted to all the employees by a secret ballot referendum, organized by trade unions, he added. A General Assembly of information is also held this morning in Echirolles (Isère) for these employees, day which coincides with the resumption of work after two months of technical unemployment of 2,000 employees.

Yesterday, an inter-trade union delegation and the direction of Caterpillar was received from 14: 30, by the Deputy Director of the Office of Christine Lagarde, Philippe Gustin, to lay the groundwork for a resumption of negotiations on the "safeguarding of employment plan" (PSE), which provides in the State of the hundreds of job losses. The employees of the two sites of Caterpillar in Isère, Grenoble and Echirolles, received last week a decrease in the number of job losses expected, from 733 to 600, and the increase of the overall envelope of the plan, of 48.5 million to EUR 50 million, not to put an end to the conflict between Directorate since the announcementon 17 February, these deletions.

The promise of Nicolas Sarkozy to "save the site" had solid game that momentarily. Trade unions, which had sequestered four of their frames estimated that after the presidential condemnation of the kidnappings of patterns, they spent for the thugs, and declined an invitation to the Elysee Palace. Several employees have also blocked access to the site.

Seized in chambers by the management of the company, the tribunal de grande instance de Grenoble, ordered Friday to 19 employees of Caterpillar to free access to Grenoble and Echirolles, plants under penalty to pay 200 euros each per day. Saturday, promised to be received Sunday at the Ministry of economy, trade unionists, who occupied for several days the site of Echirolles, evacuated sites.

"Do not go too far".

Stone of stumbling block of the conflict before the Protocol was developed in the last night, the terms and conditions for the safeguarding of employment plan accompanying. Direction der its proposal to reduce the number of job losses from 133 to the obtaining of a framework agreement on the objectives of the Organization of work and a partial unemployment convention guaranteed over four years and funded at 80. For their part, unions still claimed the European unlocking of adjustment to globalization (GEF). Amount of the order of 500 million euros and expected to apply to at least 1,000 redundancies, these funds, in principle, does not apply to employees of Caterpillar. "These funds have been used at 20 and it would be that the Government is requesting a derogation for their release," said Geneviève Fioraso, Assistant to the Mayor of Grenoble and member of Parliament (PS).

"Should however be taken to not go too far, at the risk of provoking a break with the American headquarters of Caterpillar", said even the elected. The manufacturer of construction equipment is itself subject to other pressures in Chicago, where the American unions contest the low number of redundancies in France, compared to 20,000 to the United States on a global workforce of 113.000 people.