The management of Sealants Europe, specialised in the production of sealants for aeronautics, has announced the closure of its factory located at Bezons (Val-d'Oise) which employs 208 people. The American group PPG, owner of Sealants, explains that the company is facing an overcapacity of its production tools due to the COVID-19 crisis. The latter has put 'a halt to a certain number of orders in the aeronautics and automobile sectors' stresses the management, which considers that the site is 'the least competitive' of the group.

The employees attribute this loss of competitiveness to management decisions. In December 2018, striking employees demonstrated to denounce the departure of several production units, relocated to the United States and UK. They argued that since the takeover of Joint French Hutchinson by the PPG group, there was no longer any investment at all.

PPG asserts that it wants to do everything possible to allow its employees to find a new position via the work of a reemployment agency, whereas the site is composed of 60% workers, 35% technicians and 9% managers.