Peugeot Citroën to cut 8,000 jobs and close factory in France
Baku, July 12 (AZERTAC). French political leaders and unions were in a state of shock on Thursday after carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroën announced it was shedding 8,000 jobs and closing a production line in a huge shakeup.
The revelation of the unexpected "restructuring plan" from one of the pillars of French industry prompted an instant response from François Hollande`s Socialist government.
The company, which faces a first-half loss of €700m (£550m) this year, is trying to save €1bn as it struggles to compete in Europe`s fiercely competitive car market. It is suffering particularly amid a slump in sales in the recession-hit south of Europe. Its sales plunged 20% in Europe in the first quarter.
Ayrault instructed the company to begin immediate talks with workers` unions and called company and union leaders to meet with Arnaud Montebourg, the minister for re-industrialisation before the end of July.
The restructuring plan involves the closure of the PSA factory and production line at Aulnay-sous-Bois in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis in 2014. Until Thursday, company bosses had denied plans to shut down the site. The factory, which produced 135,700 vehicles last year, was established in 1973 by Citroën before it was bought out by Peugeot three years later. It is home to the company`s anti-pollution unit, which measures the emissions of all new vehicles. It will be closed in two months and rebuilt at another PSA factory in eastern France. The site is also home to the company`s collection of every Citroën model ever produced.
The news came as a blow across France`s political spectrum.
Bernard Thibault, secretary general of the main CGT union at the plant described it as an "earthquake", while Marine Le Pen, president of the far-right Front National called for a "national support plan".
The social affairs minister, Marisol Touraine, told Europe 1 the government would be asking hard questions of PSA, which, she said, had received €4bn of taxpayers` money in recent years.
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