PSA Peugeot Citroen says it will hold a Works Council meeting next Monday (18 March) in Paris in a bid to secure agreement from its many unions on proposed restructuring, despite the bitter continuing strike at the Aulnay plant.
The automaker recently held the last of ten negotiations with its labour bodies to try and receive the green light to close its Aulnay plant near Paris and cut up to 8,000 jobs, with most unions edging towards a deal.
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“There is a Works Council next Monday and the organisations [unions] will be asked to vote on the agreement,” a PSA spokeswoman told just-auto from the Aulnay plant.
“Three weeks ago, they said orally they agreed, but now they will be asked more formally. It is five unions out of six, who should agree, a least, that is what they said. It is only the CGT who says no.
“The situation is complex – the way it is intended [is] once all the organisations have [agreed] there should not be any modifications. We are looking to have the majority of them support [us].”
PSA may well take heart from today’s [13 March] dramatic news from fellow-French automaker, Renault, which has inked a productivity deal with its own myriad unions that will see no factory closures in France in exchange for 7,500 redundancies and a salary freeze.
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By GlobalDataHowever, PSA notes strike action continues at its Aulnay plant, mainly through the hardline CGT union, with around 300 workers out of 2,600 stubbornly maintaining industrial action, which has also seen sympathy from motorway toll operators who appear to have been persuaded to lift their barriers in support.
“They [strikers] tend to do some actions every two days,” said the PSA Aulnay spokeswoman. “They are not paid when they are on strike, so they need money and this kind of action allows them to collect from the people.
“The most profitable action is peage gratuit [lifting motorway toll barriers] and France is on holiday, so there are a lot of people on the roads.”
To add to Aulnay’s woes, the severe snowstorm that pulverised northern France yesterday reached as far south as Paris, paralysing many workers’ attempts to reach PSA’s site close to the capital.
Only producing between ten and 100 cars a day due to the strike – instead of 500-700 vehicles – PSA decided to close yesterday afternoon due to the huge blizzards and has also shut today as staff were unable to reach the site.
