Valeo management plans 694 forced departures and 174 voluntary departures, according to a spokesperson for the French group.
The sites of La Suze-sur-Sarthe and La Verrière (Yvelines) will be closed, as announced. Most of their employees will be offered positions at other Valeo sites nearby, in Sablé-sur-Sarthe or in the Paris region, respectively.
The L'Isle-d'Abeau (Isère) site will not close but will reduce its size, with 70 employees instead of 308 so far. This factory which produced starters was gradually converted to hybridization systems (an electric motor with its electronic system).
According to the Force Ouvrière 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 we also take into account the vacant positions eliminated.
The sites of Sainte-Florine (Haute-Loire), Reims (Marne), Laval (Mayenne), Amiens (Somme), Limoges (Haute-Vienne) are also concerned.
Two hundred positions could also be eliminated in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.
This announcement is “a project” and “the timetable and modalities will be discussed afterwards,” said the group’s spokesperson.
These job cuts are “generally linked to the slowdown [du marché automobile] European and French in particular”, he underlined. “The production [automobile] French has declined significantly over the last ten years, we had not made any adjustment. There comes a time when you have to do it.”
The group “worked to have a plan that protects production operators”, who are not affected by forced departures, added the spokesperson.
“It’s a dramatic announcement,” reacted Bertrand Bellanger, from Force Ouvrière. “Reducing costs may be necessary, but sacrificing jobs and weakening the future of the sector in France is a strategic error,” he stressed. “The electrification of the automobile represents a major turning point for the sector, but it must not be to the detriment of employees.”
Valeo had already announced in January that it was considering cutting 1,150 positions worldwide, including 235 in France, mainly in management positions, out of 109,900 employees worldwide.
Several automotive giants are suffering from the slowdown in the European automobile market and are announcing job cuts, including Michelin, Ford and Bosch.
Specializing in electronic and lighting systems, Valeo also suffers from slipping electrification, with “a lot of postponements of new production launches among manufacturers”, explained its general manager Christophe Périllat at the end of October.
Valeo then slightly revised downwards (-3.2%) its turnover target for the year 2024, to 21.3 billion euros.
Automotive equipment manufacturers could also suffer from the arrival of Chinese competitors, while surcharges on Chinese electric cars protect European manufacturers but not equipment manufacturers, Mr. Périllat pointed out in mid-October in an interview with AFP.
Furthermore, Valeo has numerous sites in China which produce for local automobile factories, compared to which Europe has lost “25% of its competitiveness in four years”, in particular because of the inflation of wages and manufacturing costs. energy, according to Mr. Périllat.
