Renault unions are nervously eyeing yesterday’s (12 July) PSA Peugeot-Citroen news it would axe an initial 6,500 jobs and shut its Aulnay plant.
The CFDT union claims it “feared for some time” PSA would swing the axe on Aulnay, but even it appears to have been caught unawares of the scale of PSA’s cuts that will also see drastic headcount reduction at the Rennes site and a further 3,600 non-assembly staff depart.
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“Renault workers express their solidarity with their Peugeot colleagues given a fait accompli and so painfully affected by the closure,” said a CFDT statement sent to just-auto. “We feared this for some time…but the company is going beyond that which is being presented – as it will be [up to] 8,000 jobs lost with disastrous consequences for the areas concerned – l’Ille de France and l’Ille de Vilaine.
“The grassroots of Renault CFDT make clear their feelings of profound indignation and injustice and understand the nightmare that PSA workers are living through.
“Aulnay has become emblamatic of French business, which is fighting labour costs at whatever price to enable cheap capital.”
Insisting French manufacturers were becoming “trapped” by decisions taken a decade ago, CFDT nonetheless acknowledged consumers were under severe economic pressure given the downturn, which it said had not yet run its course.
Urging its members to stay “vigilant”, the CFDT added: “Aulnay will not be the last if nothing is done – it’s not only a question of jobs blackmail – it’s a question of changing economic logic.
“Competitivity is really a quesiton of strategic industrial will – it cannot be summed up in drastic cost reduction whose consequence is economic impoverishment of our industries.”
The union says urgent issues needed to be addressed such as delocalisation, automobile managment, redistribution of profits and lack of investment.
“To develop solutions before it is too late and avoid Renault employees having the same fate as their Peugeot colleagues,” noted the statement.
