SALON

Wednesday, Jan 16, 2013 3:45 PM UTC

Peugeot workers occupy plant slated to be sold

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Peugeot workers occupy plant slated to be soldFILE - In this Sept.4, 2012 file photo, a worker of French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen arrives at the factory in Aulnay-sous-Bois, north of Paris. Hundreds of Peugeot Citroen workers occupied a French factory Wednesday, Jan.16, 2012 scheduled to be sold off, largely shutting down production in a protest against planned layoffs at the struggling automaker. The Aulnay plant near Paris has been at the center of a battle over the future of France's largest automaker. The company announced last year that it planned to cut 8,000 jobs and close Aulnay as it struggles to compete in Europe's stagnant car market. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)(Credit: AP)

PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of Peugeot Citroen workers occupied a French factory scheduled to be sold off, largely shutting down production on Wednesday in a protest against planned layoffs at the struggling automaker.

The Aulnay plant near Paris has been at the center of a battle over the future of France’s largest automaker. The company announced last year that it planned to cut 8,000 jobs and close Aulnay as it struggles to compete in Europe’s stagnant car market. The company reported a €819 million ($990 million) loss in the first half of 2012; it will announce its full-year results next month.

On Wednesday, the CGT union said 300 workers stopped all production at the plant. The company, meanwhile, said around 230 were on strike — with many more absent — and that very little work was being done.

That’s a small percentage of the 3,000 people employed at Aulnay, but the union said they were able to “paralyze” the factory because most of the striking employees work in production.

Anne-Laure Descleves, a spokeswoman for Peugeot, said the unions stage a strike once a month and the current one was only slightly worse than others.

The standoff at Aulnay comes at an unfortunate time for the government, which is trying to bask in the signing of a deal between unions and the country’s business lobbies to reform the labor market. The deal — inked Friday but notably not signed by the CGT and another union — will make it easier for companies to reduce workers’ hours in times of difficulty and promises to shorten the time employees have to challenge layoffs.

The government has called the agreement historic and hopes it will help drive down France’s unemployment rate, which is over 10 percent. It also hopes the agreement will open a new era in relations between unions and management. But Wednesday’s action by the CGT, one of the country’s most radical unions, calls into question whether labor relations will be able to evolve from their current antagonism to more cooperation.

It also lays bare the difficulties facing France’s carmakers.

The European car industry is facing big difficulties at the moment: vast numbers of unsold cars sit on lots while production lines lie idle. New car registrations in the European Union fell more than 16 percent in December, continuing a three-year slide, according to Wednesday figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

The industry is now also facing severe recessions in important markets throughout southern Europe.

Some observers — and even some of the manufacturers themselves — have said the continent’s car makers need to shut down factories in order to restore profitability, as in the United States. But efforts to lay off workers in France have been met with stiff resistance.

The government initially called Peugeot’s layoff plan “unacceptable.” It eventually found a company — IG Logistics — to take over the Aulnay plant, but only with a reduced workforce of 600. The state also offered Peugeot a lifeline loan of €7 billion ($9 billion), in exchange for having a say in its decisions.

Peugeot’s rival Renault, while is faring slightly better, is facing similar pressures. It announced Tuesday that it would cut 7,500 jobs in France over the next three years by not replacing departing workers and offering an early retirement package. No layoffs are envisioned.

Arnaud Montebourg, the minister for Industrial Recovery, said Wednesday that Renault’s plan had not violated any of the government “red lines” but that it would be carefully watching for any sign of layoffs.

The action at Aulnay comes a day before Peugeot and unions are to sit down again to discuss layoffs at the plant.

“Employees at PSA Aulnay refuse to accept being laid off without anything. The false negotiations begun in November give absolutely nothing at all, the management is refusing to address the demands of the employees,” a statement from the CGT said. “The striking workers demand that management restart the negotiations from the beginning.”

Peugeot and unions are locked in discussions over how many jobs will be cut and what deal laid off workers will receive. Unions are pushing for early retirement incentives for those over 55; Descleves would not comment on PSA’s position.

More By Sarah Dilorenzo.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • A missing poster hangs on a tree outside the Cleveland home of Amanda Berry Wednesday. Berry and two other women, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, made a daring escape this week after being held captive for more than a decade.
    Credit: AP/Tony Dejak

  • Elvis Rafael Rodriguez and Emir Yasser Yeje offer their best impression of  Eric B. & Rakim. On Thursday, New York prosecutors identified the pair as members of an international gang that robbed $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking into a database of prepaid debit cards and draining ATM machines around the world.
    Credit: AP

  • New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walks to a podium during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Technology Enhanced Accelerated Learning Center at Essex County Newark Tech in Newark, N.J., Tuesday. Christie made less flattering headlines this week after undergoing a secret stomach surgery to curb his weight.
    Credit: AP/Julio Cortez

  • Workers stand outside the Tung Hai Sweater Ltd. factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday after a fire broke out in its 11-story building. Eight people were killed in the blaze.
    Credit: AP/Ismail Ferdous

  • Workers rescue a woman trapped for 17 days in the rubble of a garment factory building in Saver, Bangladesh, Friday. The building's collapse was the worst industrial disaster in the country's history, killing more than 1,000 people.
    Credit: AP

  • Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford gives his victory speech Tuesday in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., after winning back his old congressional seat in the state's first district.
    Credit: AP/Rainier Ehrhardt

  • Jodi Arias reacts in Maricopa Country Superior Court Wednesday after being found guilty of first-degree murder in the gruesome killing of her one-time boyfriend, Travis Alexander. Arias has subsequently said she wants the death penalty, claiming she'd "prefer to die sooner than later."
    Credit: AP/The Arizona Republic/Rob Schumacher

  • Ariel Castro stands for his mug shot Thursday at the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center, where he is being held on $8 million bail. The former bus driver is accused of imprisoning three young women and beating them repeatedly over a period of 10 years.
    Credit: AP/Cuyahoga County

  • Charles Ramsey addresses the media Monday after helping rescue three women held captive in Cleveland for more than a decade. Ramsey's hero portraiture has been complicated by revelations of his own domestic violence record.
    Credit: AP/The Plain Dealer/Scott Shaw

  • Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force, testifies during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The military branch was rocked this week after its chief sexual assault prevention officer was charged with sexual battery.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations