Braking for the production of 3008 and 5008 on the lines of the Sochaux plant. Two weeks of unemployment (23/27 April and 14/18 May) were announced at a works council on Friday in Sochaux. These decisions are made by the management, while the European car market is down 8% since the beginning of the year.
These unemployment measures in April and May are also taken at the Rennes and Mulhouse production sites.
Due to lower orders for both the 3008 and 2008 models, management has announced a slowdown in production from July. Cadence will increase from 50 to 44 cars a day. In its statement, the management explains that this reduction in rates will imply the non-renewal for 350 people of their fixed-term contract. This is the hiring freeze announced by the PSA Peugeot-Citroën group for the Sochaux site. In January and February, some twenty employees were hired.
“Priority to employment”
Regarding the 308, the site of Mulhouse must stop this production, it will be transferred to Sochaux. This concerns 2,000 employees who will work in the coming weeks on Saturday mornings.
The CGT reacted to these announcements, the union “considers that the priority must be given to employment and can only denounce such a” wrong turn to employees and our region. “The CFDT says it” can not accept indefinitely that precarious employees suffer all the variations of activity of PSA. Some will leave without unemployment rights given the short period of some contracts. “
Cars are selling less and less well
The tumble in car sales continues. In February, the number of new car registrations plummeted by 20.2%. In March, the drop is 23.5% in raw data. It is evaluated, throughout the quarter, at 21.7% by the Committee of French car manufacturers, Monday, April 2.
French manufacturers are particularly affected by this drop: PSA Peugeot Citroën saw its sales dip by 33.2% in March (-30.3% in the first quarter) and the Renault group (including the Dacia brand) by 29.8% (-30.2% over the quarter). Last month, 197 033 new passenger cars were registered in France.