Autoworkers in France protest layoffs, plant closing

Workers demonstrate in front of Peugeot’s Paris headquarters during a meeting
between management and and the union on June 28.

Autoworkers are fighting mad over Peugeot’s plan to lay off 8,000 employees and permanently close a key plant in the Parisian suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois.

Knowing even before Peugeot made the announcement that it plans to shut the facility in two years, the workers have been demonstrating. When the carmaker confirmed its plans on July 12, the enraged workforce walked out.

Peugeot, which is part of PSA Peugeot Citroen, the second-largest carmaker in Europe, had already announced job cuts for 6,000 employees last year, bringing layoffs to 14,000. The Aulnay plant would be the first auto facility in France to be shuttered in 20 years.

Peugeot claims a 10 percent loss in sales so far this year, especially in southern Europe, and asserts that it now has an “overcapacity” of automobiles, so it must reorganize production and cut 1 billion euros in costs. Invariably, this means making its workers pay for the capitalist crisis.

Many of this factory’s workers have been employed there for their entire adult lives. Many are members of families originally from Algeria. They were initially drawn to France by Citroen, the carmaker later bought out by Peugeot. Moreover, the shutdown is a brutal blow to Aulnay’s large immigrant population. Since many corporations have left the region, it has the country’s highest jobless rate.

Will gov’t intervene to stop layoffs?

Bernard Thibault, secretary general of the CGT, the second-largest union in France, which represents many Peugeot workers, has denounced the new government’s failure to take immediate steps to stop these and other layoffs, and is demanding that it intervene now.

Thibault said, “We are not going to take for granted the brutal suppression of tens of thousands of jobs in our country.” (Reuters, July 12)

As a candidate during this year’s election campaign, President Francois Hollande pledged to take a hard line with corporations planning layoffs. However, labor unionists were concerned that companies would escalate job cuts after the election.

Now the labor unions are organizing September protests against corporate “restructuring” and the threats to tens of thousands of jobs at Peugeot and other companies.

Will Hollande’s government stop Peugeot from carrying out its anti-worker scheme?

Although the French president called the carmaker’s intentions “unacceptable,” and his administration has vowed to tackle the unemployment crisis, it remains to be seen.

The new and misnamed “Socialist” government represents the capitalist class of France, not the workers. The role of its officials is to help French capitalism, which is today having problems due to the global economic crisis — and not to aid the workers in a conflict.

Only strong mass pressure — the power of the class struggle — can force the government to implement some measures to block corporate “austerity” policies. It looks as if there will be workers’ protests ahead.