Paris (AFP)

French automaker Renault plans to cut about 15,000 jobs worldwide, including 4,600 in France, as part of a savings plan of 2 billion euros over three years, we learned Thursday evening from concordant sources .

The project, which must be made public on Friday morning, was presented to union organizations on Thursday evening during a group social and economic committee (CCSE).

It plans to reduce the workforce "without layoffs", through voluntary departures, retirements not replaced and internal mobility measures or retraining, said these sources to AFP.

The group's global production capacities should be reduced, from 4 million vehicles currently to around 3.3 million, on a two-team basis (which corresponds to a higher potential real production by adding a third team) .

Renault will suspend plans to extend factories in Morocco and Romania, plans to reduce its production capacity in Russia, and also to reduce mechanical activities in South Korea and the manufacture of gearboxes in Turkey.

The project includes in France the shutdown of automobile production in Flins (Yvelines), after the end of the Zoe in a few years. The factory, currently of 2,600 employees, will however be converted and will recover the activity of the Choisy-le-Roi site (Val-de-Marne), which employs 260 people in the repair of engines and gearboxes used as parts of reuse.

The future of Fonderie de Bretagne, with nearly 400 employees in Caudan (Morbihan), remains pending with a "strategic review" announced. Same thing for the Dieppe factory (Seine-Maritime), where a reflection will be initiated for "a reconversion project at the end of the production of the Alpine 110".

Finally, the merger of the Douai and Maubeuge sites in the North is planned to create a center of excellence for electric and light utility vehicles.

In France, an "information-consultation" procedure for employee representatives will begin "from mid-June", according to a union source.

A group board of directors was convened Thursday evening.

According to concordant sources, the savings plan of 2 billion euros is distributed for around a third on production, a third on engineering and a third on structural, marketing and network costs.

Questioned by AFP at the end of the CCSE, Franck Daout, central union delegate of the CFDT, wanted "a method agreement" for the implementation of the plan, "with expertise on the sites, locally, starting on as soon as possible".

Regarding the social impact of the job cuts, Mr. Daout stressed that these will be "natural retirements and voluntary departures".

"They are clever. They present this as working hypotheses, say + we will do it with you +, when everything is already decided," said another union official, however, on condition of anonymity.

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