Alcatel-Lucent CEO Michel Combes will be heard by the French National Assembly’s committee on economic affairs during the week of 14 October, Reuters reports. He will be asked to provide details of the restructuring plan due to see the closure of several sites, the elimination of 15,000 jobs and the creation of 5,000. Industry minister Arnaud Montebourg has called on France’s big telecom operators to show national solidarity in the face of the mass layoff.
During question time at the National Assembly, Montebourg linked the restructuring of the Franco-American equipment maker to a US government strategy to ready itself for the arrival of lower-cost products from China at a time when Europe is involved in "extremely destructive" price competition.
He reported to legislators that he had asked former incumbent operator Orange and its competitors in the French market to not automatically award contracts to the lowest bidder, but to support the manufacture of telecom equipment in France and in Europe. The government has also asked Alcatel-Lucent management to decrease the number of job cuts because the State cannot forever pay for managers’ errors, which are "public in action and public in responsibility".
Speaking on the airwaves of Europe 1, French prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called on negotiations to save as many jobs and sites as possible to begin at Alcatel, the French partner of the merged group.
