The automotive supplier Valeo plans to cut 868 positions on eight of its French sites, the group's management said on Wednesday. The La Verrière factory in Yvelines could be closed. More than 200 people are affected on this Ile-de-France site.
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“This is a dramatic announcement“, reacted Bertrand Bellanger, from FO. “Reducing costs may be necessary, but sacrificing jobs and weakening the future of the sector in France is a strategic error“, he judged. And continued: “The electrification of the automobile represents a major turning point for the sector. But it must not be to the detriment of employees.”
The Valeo group, a global automotive supplier, had already announced last January that it was considering cutting 1,150 positions worldwide, including 235 in France, mainly in management positions, out of 109,900 employees worldwide.
Management announced this Wednesday, November 27, the elimination of 868 positions in its 8 French sites. In Île-de-France, the La verrière site is affected by this announcement. According to Valeo, employees will be offered positions nearby. In total, the equipment manufacturer plans 694 forced departures and 174 voluntary departures, explains a spokesperson for the group.
For the Force Ouvrière (FO) union, the total would in fact be 1,282 job cuts, out of 13,500 employees in France, if the employees refuse their transfer and if we also take into account the vacant positions eliminated.
Valeo is yet another giant in the automotive sector to suffer from the slowdown in the European automobile market and to announce job cuts, after Michelin, Ford and Bosch.
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Specializing in electronic and lighting systems, the equipment manufacturer also suffers from slipping electrification, with “a huge number of postponements of new production launches among manufacturers“, explained its general director Christophe Périllat at the end of October.
In France, the sites of La Suze-sur-Sarthe (Sarthe), Sainte-Florine (Haute-Loire), Reims (Marne), Laval (Mayenne), Amiens (Somme) and Limoges (Haute-Vienne), L'Isle -d'Abeau (Isère) are also concerned.
This announcement is “a project” dont “the timetable and modalities will be discussed next“, specified the spokesperson for the group. It comes as the general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet sounded the alarm this Wednesday, predicting a “very strong acceleration of the deterioration of the situation” in terms of social plans, in the industry.
