- Employees of the Renault factory in Maubeuge have been on strike since Friday.
- The automaker has confirmed that production of the Kangoo will not be relocated to Douai.
- Reassuring news that prompted workers to return to work.
Employees of the Renault factory in Maubeuge, in the North, on strike since Friday resumed work on Wednesday. They say they are "reassured" by the announcements from the automaker and the government, we learned from union sources.
“We had reassuring news which we shared with the employees, even if we remain suspicious. We won the battle, but we did not win the war, ”said Yannick Charlesege, CFTC union representative. "Following the commitments of Renault and the government, the employees decided to resume activity on the Maubeuge site," confirmed Jérôme Delvaux of the CGT.
The Kangoo will always be produced in Maubeuge
Saturday, thousands of people, 8,000 according to the CGT, had demonstrated in Maubeuge against the Renault savings plan which provides 4,600 job cuts out of 48,000 in France. The factory had been shutdown since Friday morning to oppose the plan to transfer production of Kangoo electric utilities to Douai.
In financial difficulty and victim of the collapse of the car market, Renault had indeed announced on Friday the elimination of 15,000 jobs worldwide, including 4,600 in France, with voluntary departures and without layoffs, as part of its plan savings of more than 2 billion euros, until 2023.
The government approved on Tuesday a guaranteed loan of 5 billion euros to help carmaker Renault overcome the coronavirus crisis. The Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, was pleased to have obtained, in return, the preservation of employment and industrial capacity on the Maubeuge site.
Of Renault's 14 industrial sites in France, only one is definitely doomed to closure, that of Choisy-le-Roi (Val-de-Marne), whose employees have been on strike since Tuesday against the transfer of planned recycling activity towards Flins (Yvelines).
A spontaneous demonstration gathering the striking workers of the Choisy site, in the presence of the leader of the CGT Philippe Martinez, took place in the city on Wednesday.
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- Strike
- Automobile
- Renault
- Economy