French car maker PSA Peugeot-Citroën came under fire last night after announcing it would close its plant at Ryton near Coventry up to six months early.
The company told the plant's remaining 800 workers that it would close Ryton in January next year. When it initially announced it was closing the plant it said production would not continue "beyond mid 2007."
Trade unions, which sought to organise a UK consumer boycott of Peugeot cars in response to the original closure, reacted with fury to the news. The Transport and General Workers Union accused the French car maker of "callous cynicism". Amicus said it was "bitterly disappointed" by the early closure.
PSA said it had advanced the decision to close the plant, which produces Peugeot 206 cars, after requests from a quarter of the remaining workforce to be allowed to leave and it was receiving an increasing number of applications from workers who wanted to leave to take on new jobs. "This situation has prompted the group to review the timing of the end of the activity at Ryton," it said.
PSA announced in April that it was closing Ryton with loss of more than 2,000 jobs. In August the factory moved from a double to a single shift system and the workforce is now down to around 800, producing around 160 cars a day.
A company spokeswoman said around 200 of the remaining workers had asked to leave and the company was having to take on temporary staff to maintain the range of skills needed to keep production going.
Last month PSA announced that it was speeding up a cost cutting and efficiency drive across the group, including a hiring freeze and reduction in capital spending. Asked if the early closure of Ryton would save money, the spokeswoman said: "It's not about money."
PSA has set aside some £227m against the cost of closing Ryton. Workers are receiving between one and three years salary in redundancy payments, with the average pay-off between £20,000 and £25,000. "In conjunction with the government and local agencies comprising the Peugeot Partnership, the company's £5m resource centre dedicated to helping staff at Ryton, currently has more than 6,000 pre-qualified job opportunities available," the company said yesterday.
"In addition, PSA Peugeot-Citroën itself has a further 100 redeployment opportunities within the Coventry area. The resource centre will continue to operate as long as necessary." The spokeswoman said another jobs fair would be held in Coventry this weekend to help workers find other employment.
The unions, who are maintaining their boycott stance, were unimpressed. Dave Osborne, the T&G's national secretary for the car industry, said: "Peugeot built up hopes that there would be work well into next year if people wanted it. But they have dashed those hopes and, worse, denied our members the chance to look for work in the knowledge there was a reasonable income coming in."
Roger Maddison, his opposite number at Amicus, expressed similar outrage. "Peugeot have lied to us all the way through this process and have threatened our members before with early closure. Peugeot promised a phased shut down, offering employment into mid 2007."
He said that when challenged three weeks ago about rumours of an early shut down, the company had said it had not changed its plans. "Last Christmas Peugeot gave everyone a mince pie, this year they are giving them the sack. It seems Peugeot's greed for profits and contempt for our members have no limits."
