PSA Employees at Aulnay Planning "Shock Campaign"

It seems like the only news to come out of PSA PeugeotPeugeotFrance, 1882 > present120 models
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this summer concerns it closing the Aulnay factory where the Citroën C3Citroën C3 Gen.2France, 2009 > 2016111 versions
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is built. Workers are the plant are currently on their summer vacation but are planning a "shock campaign" when they return to prevent the factory from closing. 

The entire problem began when PSA announced that it would close the Aulnay factory, which employs 3,300 directly, and get rid a total of 8,000 workers by 2014. PSA says that this is necessary to combat overcapacity, but the French government has hired an independent investigator to look into the claims. 

PSA has a fight ahead of it. France has a new socialist government itching to prove itself and strong labor unions that want to prevent the closure. Even the local government in Aulnay is socialist and threatening to take ownership of the factory and land if it is closed. 

"We have the power to make Peugeot back down, to preserve our jobs. We are a political bomb, a social bomb, and we intend to detonate," said CGT union leader at Aulnay Jean-Pierre Mercier.

PSA has offered to find workers new work or transfer them to other PSA factories, find a new industrial employer for the Aulnay factory and those that decide to leave will receive €1,000 for each year they have worked for PSA. However, union members do not find that to be enough. Many do not want to move and do not trust management to find a new employer for the factory. Some workers also believe the severance payment not to be enough. 

Aulnay's mayor Gerard Segura has made threats that if the factory closes he will expropriate the land from PSA. Under a French law, Segura has the ability to do this but only under extreme economic circumstances. Segura and the city government would have to show a public necessity for the land, which would be extremely difficult to prove in this case. 

As part of the closure, PSA must find a new tenant for the factory, but that will also be quite difficult. There has been a proposal from the Paris railway network to use the factory as a maintenance center for its trains. However, this would probably only employ a few dozen workers instead of the thousands current at the factory. 

Expect many protests from Aulnay and at PSA's headquarters through the rest of the summer and the fall. Aulnay workers have already organized one protest and are planning a larger one with workers from other PSA factories. It is possible that PSA's fight to close Aulnay could take years. 

"We have a lot of experience with social conflicts all around the country. They haven't seen anything yet," said union member Marc Darsy.

Source: Automotive News Europe