Peugeot Citroen automaker to cut 8,000 French jobs

Workers face 'disaster' at doomed Paris Peugeot plant

France's largest auto manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen announced Thursday that it will be cutting 8,000 jobs from French factories following significant first quarter losses and a shrinking European market.


The Aulnay plant near Paris, which employs more than 3,000 workers, will stop making cars in 2014 as Peugeot reorganizes its under-used domestic production capacity, the company said on Thursday.

Aulnay, which builds the Citroen C3 subcompact, will become the first French car plant to close in more than two decades, challenging new Socialist President Francois Hollande’s pledge to revive industrial production.

“I know how serious these measures are for the people concerned, and for our entire company,” Chief Executive Philippe Varin told reporters. “But a company can’t preserve jobs when it is burning 200 million euros ($245 million) a month in cash.”