The automaker Renault has started to revive its production in France, after an interruption since March 16 as part of the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic, we learned Wednesday from management.
A gradual recovery
"The recovery will be done in an extremely gradual way, with limited staff, which will gradually increase" in order to be able to verify the correct application of the health protocol, explained the director of human resources, Tristan Lormeau, during a conference call with journalists.
Three factories of the group, Cléon (Seine-Maritime) which manufactures engines, Le Mans (Sarthe) which produces chassis, and Choisy-le-Roi (Val-de-Marne) which produces spare parts for reuse, have already started a recovery "this week," said Patrice Haettel, the group's industrial director for France.
The recovery will continue next week, with the Flins plant (Yvelines) which notably assembles the electric city car Zoe. "The other sites will follow until early May," said Patrice Haettel. He stressed that at the start there was no question of making large volumes but of resuming with very limited staff.
“Today, we are preparing. We have to show that we know how to work with the health protocol, and therefore it will take a long time to be ready the day when our concessions are to reopen, ”he explained.
Health security measures
He underlined that this resumption came after several weeks of preparation with occupational medicine to prepare this protocol, in dialogue with the trade union organizations.
Health security measures include taking the temperature of employees at the factory entrance, wearing protective equipment, cleaning and disinfecting workstations and reorganizing collective rooms.
On the union side, Franck Daout, CFDT delegate, joined by AFP, explained that "the factories should restart with 25% of employees on site", by "half-teams or quarter-teams", after "training on posts to respect barrier gestures ”. Regarding the Flins site, "the order books for Zoe are full, customers are waiting for their vehicles," he said.
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But the recovery is not unanimous. What "management has put in place" in terms of health protection, "it is not much," lamented Fabien Gache, CGT delegate, questioning the value of resuming activity "if it is to take out only 50 cars in the day ".
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