Peugeot – The battle in Aulnay-sous-Bois

In July, after workers at French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen learned of company plans to close a plant in the suburbs of Paris, union leader Jean-Pierre Mercier went on the attack. Within hours he was calling for a “shock campaign” to force PSA Chief Executive Philippe Varin to keep the plant open.

“We have the power to make Peugeot back down, to preserve our jobs,” Mercier, head of the hard-line CGT union at the factory targeted for closure, told a crowd gathered by its gates. “We are a political bomb, a social bomb, and we intend to detonate.”

The union is planning a long-term campaign of protest, including marches on the company headquarters, to keep the plant open, no matter the cost to the company. Other unions are more intent on extracting hefty redundancy terms for workers.

The battle in Aulnay-sous-Bois may be the first of many across Europe. European carmakers such as Peugeot, General Motors’ Opel division and Fiat in Italy say they are finally ready to deal with the long-standing problem of overcapacity…

via Insight: Peugeot faces tough fight over plant closure | Reuters.

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French carmaker Peugeot Citroen has set out plans to cut 8,000 jobs and close an assembly plant outside Paris as losses mount. Peugeot said the Aulnay plant near Paris, which employs 3,000 workers, would stop production in 2014. Last week, Peugeot said its first-half sales had fallen 13% amid a “profound crisis” in its eurozone … Continue reading »

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