PARIS — Plans by the carmaker Renault to cut about 6,000 jobs through buyouts met with resistance Tuesday, as a union called a one-day protest strike.þþ“The sickness at Renault today isn’t that there are too many employees,” a spokesman for the union, the Confédération Générale du Travail, said. “The problem is that demand is weak.”þþThe spokesman, who asked not to be identified, in keeping with union rules, said that rather than cut jobs, the company should introduce affordable new models that customers want.þþHe said the strike, to be held Thursday, would be followed by additional action in early October if workers called for it.þþRenault employs about 41,700 people in France, not including those at subsidiaries. A Renault spokeswoman, Nathalie Bourotte, said the company was planning to offer about 4,900 buyouts in France. Renault also wants to eliminate 1,100 jobs in Europe outside France. Hardest hit will be the Sandouville plant in western France, which makes the Laguna, a family-size sedan. A thousand workers will be laid off there.þþIn July, Renault cut its 2009 sales target by 10 percent and said it would reduce its European work force, saying that economic conditions had deteriorated more than it had expected. The company said it hoped that by offering buyouts to workers it could avoid involuntary layoffs, as the French labor code makes firing workers expensive and difficult.þþLike other automakers, Renault has struggled with high costs for raw materials, and the tight credit market and higher inflation have made it harder for customers to buy cars. Auto sales over all in the United States fell 10.6 percent from a year earlier in the January-to-July period, according to Ward’s Automotive Group, and the rate of decline accelerated in the second quarter. Western European sales fell 2 percent in the first six months of the year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.þþ“The company has little choice but to start adjusting their cost base,” Michael Tyndall, an analyst at Nomura International in London, said. “If they’re going to make 10 percent fewer cars, they’re going to have to spend 10 percent less in building them.”þþThe chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, has outlined a plan to raise the company’s operating profit margin to 6 percent by 2009. Despite the July revision to the automaker’s sales forecast, Mr. Ghosn said the target remained intact.þþ“Europe is somewhere between 6 and 12 months behind the United States in the cycle, and it’s looking pretty grim for demand,” Mr. Tyndall said. He predicted that automakers would find the global market even tougher in 2009 than in 2008.þþThe company also said Tuesday that it was investing 1.8 billion euros, or $2.5 billion, in its new Megane compact hatchback. Renault plans to introduce the car at the Paris Motor Show in October. þþ
Source: NY Times
