PSA’s CFDT Rennes union has denounced the automaker’s plan to make thousands of staff redundant as a “thunder clap across the whole country.”
The CFDT is the latest labour body to queue up behind fellow unionists at the CGT and CFE-CGC organisations, who were dealt a hammer blow last Thursday (12 July) with the announcement PSA intends to close its Aulnay plant and drastically reduce headcount at Rennes.
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With the prospect of up to 8,000 job losses across a country already facing economic difficulties as it wrestles with its huge public debt, unions are mobilising in an attempt to persuade PSA, if not to renege on its plans, then at least to alleviate their impact.
“Given the scale of the plan announced by PSA, the CFDT Metallurgy [union] denounces the hesitant industrial strategy of the manufacturer and its questionable financial practices,” said a CFDT statement.
“As soon as the day after the crisis of 2008, PSA returned to long-criticised practices, notably a large distribution of dividends…and huge directors’ salaries, more than EUR3m (US$3.7m) for the managing director in 2010.”
Despite the strength of its language, the CFDT nonetheless accepts the proposed alliance with General Motors could provide some “prospects for savings” in the medium term, but does not offer a solution to problems in Europe, where PSA is heavily involved.
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By GlobalDataThe union also fires a broadside as it what it perceives to be an unfair concentration on labour cost.
“The simplistic argument of labour costs is equally denounced,” it noted. “In the field of vehicle assembly, wages represent at best, 6% of production costs.
“How, on that basis, can they justify closing Aulnay citing labour costs?”
PSA intends to close its C3-producing factory altogether with 3,000 jobs losses, while the site at Rennes will lose 1,500 posts with a further 3,600 non-assembly redundancies across the Group.
“The announcement of 8,000 job losses will resonate like a thunder clap across the whole country,” said the CFDT branch at PSA’s Rennes factory.
PSA in Paris was not immediately available for comment.
