Renault launched, Thursday, September 16, negotiations with the unions with a view to a “Three-year social agreement” 2022-2024 which would involve a large number of departures, but also hires, with the “Desire to position France at the heart of industrial and research and development activities [du groupe] “, by installing “Technologies of the future”, said the manufacturer in a press release.
The automotive group “Plans to produce nine new vehicles in France by 2025”, “Of which a majority 100% electric”. Besides the “500 net job creations”, in particular by hiring ” key skills “, Renault provides for its employees “10,000 training courses and retraining in all professions”, he added.
Ads “in the right direction”
Negotiations are to continue until the end of the year, the unions said. “For the moment, we do not know how the departures will be carried out”, specified Mariette Rih, Force Ouvrière (FO) delegate, hoping that there would be no “No forced departure”. Corn “The announcements made are going in the right direction” for “Renault’s industrial footprint in France”, she estimated.
CFDT “Will not accept any dry dismissal”, warned the union. “The project presented is ambitious, it’s positive”, corn “The downside is engineering with new job cuts”, regretted Jean-François Nanda, CFDT delegate, who pleads for a staggering of departures “Over the period of the agreement”.
“We will position ourselves when we have all the elements during the negotiations, for example on working time. White-collar populations are the most affected by departures ” envisaged, underlined Guillaume Ribeyre, CFE-CGC delegate. “Everything is conditioned on the completion of an agreement”, he noted.
Engineering and support functions strongly affected
Engineering and support functions have already paid a heavy price for the restructuring of Renault, as part of the savings plan detailed in May 2020. Of the 4,600 job cuts announced for France at the time (out of 15,000 reductions) worldwide), 1,500 concerned engineering, and 1,000 support functions.
The voluntary departure plan opened for these employees, via a collective contractual termination (RCC), has not yet been completed. The 2,100 job cuts in the factories were carried out by natural departures (retirement, etc.).
In its project presented Thursday, management plans 2,000 hires for French factories and “More than 5,000 training and retraining courses”, according to its press release.
For engineering, management evokes “1,600 potential departures” and “400 recruitments for new key skills, such as data science or battery chemistry”, as well as 3,000 training or retraining. In support functions, there would be 400 departures, 100 recruitments of ” key skills “ and 2,000 training or retraining.
Focus on electric
“Subject to agreement”, notes the management, the plan provides for assigning in particular to the ElectriCity pole, which will be created in 2022 in Hauts-de-France, the manufacture of the future electric Renault 5, and the electric version of the New Kangoo model.
In Seine-Maritime, the Dieppe plant would produce a new Alpine vehicle, the Sandouville plant would manufacture the New Electric Trafic, while the “Future 100 kW electric motor” would return to the Cléon factory. The model that will replace the Master and “A vehicle for a partner” would be produced in Batilly (Meurthe-et-Moselle).
“The project aims in particular to make France the heart of the electric vehicle for Renault Group, by increasing its industrial activity in this field”, noted the management.
Gloomy summer for the European automotive market
After an encouraging spring, the European car market fell again in July and August, according to figures released Thursday (September 16) by the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA).
The 823,949 new car registrations in the European Union in July represent a drop of 23.2% compared to 2020. It is France which recorded, during this month, the sharpest drop (-35.3 %). Among the main manufacturers, the Renault group suffered particularly (- 39.5% of vehicles and 2.5 points of market share less compared to 2020), ahead of Stellantis (-24.3%) and the European leader Volkswagen (-20.9%).
In August, the drop was 19.1% with 622,993 registrations. Stellantis (Peugeot, Fiat, Citroen, Opel-Vauxhall) recorded a drop of 29.7%, with 2.7 points of market share less compared to August 2020. The Renault group observed a drop of 20.6 % without losing too much market share. Volkswagen remains largely number one, with 163,995 vehicles registered, but a drop of -15.9%.
The recovery is long overdue, with the effects of the health crisis and those of the global semiconductor shortage at stake. However, the sector is keeping its head above water for the first eight months of 2021 thanks to the good performance of the spring, with an increase of 11.2%, or 6.8 million new passenger cars put on the roads.
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