The news of this transfer was announced this Thursday, April 25, 2024 during a CSE, social and economic committee, announced the unions. It is the group’s IT services based in Bessoncourt in the Territoire de Belfort since the 1980s, which are affected by this operation.
In November 2023, “we had already had the beginnings of a sale of the Bessoncourt site, information had leaked” explains Michel Weber, CFE CGC Stellantis, to France 3 Franche-Comté. This time, things are becoming clearer.
The IT department of the automotive group located in Franche-Comté will move. Around twenty kilometers or twenty minutes more travel time for some employees. “No one is losing their job for the moment, but obviously people will not follow and will take the voluntary departure plan in force in the group” declares Michel Weber. “I expected it, but some of my colleagues are taking a hit to the back of the head. We have people who live near Mulhouse or Colmar, this will add travel time for them,” said the trade unionist.
The staff transferred from Bessoncourt should be welcomed on the Sochaux site in the M20 building, where the research and development teams are grouped.
It’s a feeling of waste, with management telling us one thing one day, and the next day the opposite. The human aspect is a little forgotten in this, the financial aspect that counts.
Michel Weber, CFE CGC Stellantis at the Bessoncourt site
For Sophie Deville, CFDT union representative at the Bessoncourt site, this transfer happened more quickly than expected. “We thought we would stay here for another four, five, six years. We are very surprised,” she says.
In addition to Stellantis employees, the Bessoncourt site also employs external service providers, maintenance, security, cleaning. The closure of the site will also have an economic impact on shops and restaurants in the surrounding area, estimates the CFE-CGC union.
According to Jean-Paul Guy, substitute central union representative of Stellantis France for the CFTC, the employment of the 330 employees of the Stellantis group is guaranteed. Would stay put, part of the employees already outsourced to the Kyndrill company. For Jean-Paul Guy, Stellantis is undoubtedly implementing this closure in order to rationalize and save money on the real estate and industrial fronts.
This transfer is a purely economic operation.
Sophie Deville, CFDT union representative
With its 14 brands including Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Dodge and Opel, Stellantis published a new record profit of 18.6 billion euros for 2023, up 11% year-on-year. Its turnover is close to 190 billion euros.
Contacted by France 3 Franche-Comté, Stellantis management justifies this transfer:
“As part of its Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan and its transformation into a TECH Company, the Stellantis Group is aiming to migrate 80% of its IT applications to the Cloud. This shift leads to a significant reduction in IT hosting space which makes possible: the redeployment of IT and tertiary activities from Bessoncourt to the Stellantis site in Sochaux without impact on employment and the optimization of the Group’s real estate footprint.”
The manufacturer’s computer center based in Bessoncourt was built between the ex-Peugeot factories in Sochaux and Mulhouse. It houses data from the group’s factories, both administrative and production, explains Michel Weber.
What will become of the Bessoncourt site afterwards? What will become of the manufacturer’s data storage machines? It is too early to tell. The unions have not had any information on this subject.