Paris (AFP)
The president of the Renault group, Jean-Dominique Sénard, assured Sunday that he had "no intention" to close the site of the automaker of Maubeuge (North), where several thousands of people demonstrated Saturday against the plan of savings announced by the group.
"I have no a priori intention to close the Maubeuge factory. I assure you, I never said it and I never even thought of it elsewhere", as part of the savings plan announced by the group this week, said Mr. Sénard at the Grand Jury RTL-Le Figaro-LCI.
In difficulty, the French manufacturer announced a savings plan of more than 2 billion euros over three years, which provides for 4,600 job cuts out of 48,000 in France, and more than 10,000 outside France.
He also plans to transfer production of the Kangoo electric utilities to Douai - around 2,900 employees -, around 70 km from Maubeuge, which would inherit a new platform.
This project sparked outcry at the Maubeuge site (2,100 employees, all status) where the employees stopped production on Friday morning.
Several thousand people gathered on Saturday in front of the factory, before marching in the city, to demonstrate against the economic plan, at the call of the factory inter-union (CGT, CFDT, CFTC, CFE- CGC, South).
Sunday, Mr. Sénard replied that the announced plan was still only a "project" and that elected officials, unions and management had to "build (...) together" the future of the group.
"Nothing will be done in the north of France, a place that I would like to see in the long term as one of the major centers of the automotive industry in France (...) without this open discussion with everyone," insisted M Senard.
"Nothing can be done other than in dialogue, in discussion, looking at what are the best options, and what are the costs and benefits of such and such a solution", echoed the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire on France 3.
"The main justification" for the displacement project is a larger area available to extend the Douai site than that of Maubeuge, he explained.
A meeting is to be held Tuesday morning at the Ministry of the Economy, between union representatives, local elected officials, Bruno Le Maire and Jean-Dominique Senard.
"We will discuss to see if there are alternative options, and if there are alternative options which make it possible to reconcile the development, the preservation of the sites and at the same time the competitiveness of Renault, we will choose them. is a process that begins, "insisted Bruno Le Maire.
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