France: PSA group to bring Polish employees to its factory in Hordain

PSA employees at their work station on April 15, 2020. Thomas SAMSON / AFP

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The French car manufacturer PSA brings its Polish employees to France from the Gliwice factory which manufactures Opels Astra. They are coming to strengthen the teams at the Hordain factory in northern France, in order to increase the site's production rate. This decision provokes anger and misunderstanding among the unions.

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A total of 531 Polish employees from the PSA group are planned as reinforcements at the Hordain site. They will complete the two day teams and restart the night team, which has been stopped since the start of containment. According to PSA management, the plant is currently operating with two teams, which is insufficient to meet the pending orders for 30,000 commercial vehicles.

► Read also: Renault plans to cut 4,600 jobs in France

During their three-month mission, these Polish employees will be accommodated at PSA's expense and paid according to the French automobile collective agreement. The management of PSA claims to make no savings on its employees, but on the contrary provide them with work where there is. In addition, the group declares to do the same with its French employees, temporarily moving them from one site to another.

The unions refuse that the employees of the group "  be nomads of the automobile industry in Europe  ". They recall that PSA could have called on its 500 French temporary workers put on partial unemployment due to the closure of factories due to confinement. They denounce a measure which leaves temporary workers on the floor and which puts European group employees in competition.

PSA management continues its policy of putting employees in competition with each other. For years, it played the temporary workers against the permanent contracts of PSA and now it makes play the Polish employees against the temporary workers.

Jean-Pierre Mercier, central union representative of the CGT of the PSA group

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  • Automobile
  • Economy
  • France
  • Poland

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