Will the Stellantis factory in Metz go on strike?
The CGT says it fears this Thursday, March 14, the closure of the car manufacturer's gearbox factory in Moselle (57) with the loss of its 900 jobs.
During a social and economic committee on March 5, the management of the Metz-Borny factory announced the cessation of production of two out of three gearboxes produced on the site in 2024, the union indicated in a press release.
From this year, production will fall by 50%, then by 75% in 2025, specifies the press release, which adds that the work will be relocated to Italy and India.
Questioned by AFP, central union delegate Fabrice Jamart said he feared the closure of the factory in the following years and the disappearance of all of its 900 jobs.
“We know very well that they are not going to leave a factory for just a gearbox
,” he said.
Fabrice Jamart clarified that the 230 positions eliminated are not outright layoffs, but that employees are either invited to take early retirement or to leave in two joint ventures for electric motor gearboxes, one also in Borny, a district of Metz, and the other in Trémery, to the north of the city.
500 employees “already transferred”
“You have to resign to change factories. There are some who accept
,” notes Fabrice Jamart.
According to him, these factories focused on electric motors will not have the capacity to absorb the threatened jobs.
For the union official, these job cuts are not linked to the evolution of the automobile group towards electric cars, but to a logic
of “financial gain”
.
Questioned by AFP, a spokesperson for the group indicated that
“nearly 500 employees have already been transferred and trained in new professions linked to electrification”
in Metz.
“The need for personnel will increase as the two JVs established in the region ramp up: e-Transmissions in Metz and Emotors in Trémery
. ”
E-Transmissions
“is currently ramping up
,” with a target of 600,000 boxes per year, Stellantis specifies in an email.
Stellantis, resulting from the merger in 2021 of Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat-Chrysler, announced in mid-February a new record net profit of 18.6 billion euros in 2023, up 11% over one year.
At the same time, the group's workforce fell by 12% to reach 242,000 employees worldwide, or 30,000 fewer employees in one year.