It’s official – the management of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s EMEA unit and Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe confirmed there will be no last minute reprieve for Goodyear’s Amiens Nord factory in France.

The plant is to be closed, and Goodyear will exit the agricultural tire business in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region entirely.

“The company’s intention to exit the EMEA farm tire business is consistent with our strategy to strengthen Goodyear’s focus on its core businesses,” explained Arthur de Bok, president of Goodyear EMEA and chairman of Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe.

The Amiens Nord plant produces close to 60% of all agricultural tires manufactured in the EMEA region. On Jan. 31, Goodyear Dunlop Tires France presented the French Central Works Council a plan to close the facility, subject to consultation with the relevant employee representative bodies and other local approvals.

The rationale behind closing the site is straightforward; French newspaper Le Soir quotes Goodyear management as saying the Amiens Nord plant lost 61 million euros in 2011.

Should the Amiens Nord closure gain approval, 1,173 jobs will be lost. The CGT union, however, does not intend to take the decision lying down. According to the Le Parisien newspaper, CGT workers’ representative Frank Jurek said the union would “fight the battle to the end.”

Another CGT workers’ representative, Mickael Mallet, said “the battle began five years ago and will continue, whatever the decision.”

Goodyear sold its agricultural businesses in North America in 2005 and in Latin America in 2011 to Titan International. In 2011, Titan showed interest in acquiring Goodyear’s European agricultural business, but plans to do so crumbled when it could not get what it viewed as a reasonable deal from French worker unions.

The French government contacted Titan last week in the hope it could tempt chairman and CEO Morry Taylor to reconsider his position on the plant.

However, Titan has not responded publicly to recent pleas, and it should not be forgotten that at the end of 2011 Taylor referred to the situation in France in relation to the Goodyear deal as “screwed up” and he commented that “French workers are very good at what they do when they work but as I told the union personnel, you cannot get paid seven hours for three hours of work.” (Tyres & Accessories)