No real answers were provided to the questions about progress on the plan to divest Packaging, the future of the Engineered Products business group and of Research and Development, or to all the questions concerning the 31,000 employees in Europe.

Under these circumstances, the employee representatives in the Alcan EWC consider that they are not in a position to issue an opinion within the framework of the information-consultation procedure. They have therefore decided to re-submit their questions and requests to the management of Alcan and of Rio Tinto and to demand precise written commitments before the offer closes on 23 October. Such commitments have been made in Canada and what is possible on the other side of the Atlantic must also be possible in Europe.

In doing so, the EWC employee representatives aim to obtain compliance with their right to information enabling them to:

Should this request for information not be met, they are determined to demand compliance with the attributions of the European Works Council and to call for all employees of the European sites to mobilise.