Renault-owned Romanian carmaker Dacia said on Thursday it was in talks with trade unions to avert a strike at its plant, Reuters reported.
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Unions representing 90% of the plant’s 16,400 staff have threatened a strike in coming weeks if Renault fails to increase wages by 23.3% by the end of the year, Reuters said.
“Fresh talks will start next Monday. Dacia’s management will propose to trade unionists a 14% wage hike in line with inflation,” spokesman Silviu Sepciu told Reuters by phone from the Mioveni plant, 80 miles west of Bucharest.
According to Reuters, Romania aims to slash year-on-year inflation, the highest in the region, to 14% this year from 17.8% in 2002.
Sepciu told Reuters the management was also considering plans to propose a new bonus system for its workers.
According to Reuters, Dacia remains the market leader in Romania in 2002, selling 57,000 units of its locally produced Dacia brand, and sees its sales rising to around 67,000 this year.
The news agency said the plant is undergoing a vast restructuring programme to meet the French firm’s plans to turn Dacia into its number two brand after its own, by launching a 5,000-euro model that would help it break even in 2004-2005.
“Investments to restructure the plant would exceed initial estimations,” Sepciu told Reuters, explaining that this was the reason the owner wanted to keep wage rises close to inflation levels.
But, the news agency noted, unions argue that their demand for a 23.3% wage hike took into account the savings made by Dacia after 3,000 redundancies over the past year.
