Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard sought to defuse a strike that erupted at a factory in northern France after the carmaker announced a cost-cutting program, saying he wasn’t planning to shut the site, reports Bloomberg.
“I have no intention, in principle, to close the Maubeuge plant,” he said in an interview Sunday on Le Grand Jury RTL-Le Figaro-LCI. “I can assure you, I never said that and I didn’t even think that.”
Renault unveiled a sweeping plan on Friday to eliminate about 14,600 jobs worldwide and lower production capacity by almost a fifth to slash costs amid the global auto industry slump.
The plan includes trimming 4,600 positions in France, or about 10% of the carmaker’s total in its home country, through voluntary retirement and retraining. It sparked an outcry from labor unions.
The manufacturer, which is poised to get a state-guaranteed loan of as much as 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion), has come under intense pressure from the government to tread carefully with plans to downsize in France.