The management of the German automotive supplier Bosch has announced the suspension of a major industrial project in Rodez (Aveyron), rekindling concerns about the future of this location where a job cut plan is underway.
During a meeting in Stuttgart, Germany, on Wednesday, the equipment manufacturer announced the suspension of its “Fresh2” project, hydrogen refrigerated trailers, for lack of immediate output in the industry.
The transport sector is just beginning to switch to hydrogen and “the group does not have enough visibility on the development of the market” for trailers with this same technology, a Bosch spokeswoman in France told AFP. Therefore, the project is kept in the fridge for “several years”.
Bosch had announced at the end of 2021 the elimination of 750 jobs out of 1,250 in Rodez. The site, which produces injectors for diesel engines in particular, suffers from falling sales of these engines.
750 jobs out of 1,250 cut in Rodez
The Fresh2 project would represent half of the remaining workforce, that is, approximately 250 employees. About twenty people were already working on the project in Rodez, as well as about twenty at the Vénissieux research center near Lyon.
The SUD and CFE-CGC unions “very much regret this decision, which sends a bad message for the future of the Rodez plant and its associated jobs beyond 2028,” they said in a statement Thursday.
Bosch had pledged that the decline in the workforce would be gradual, through early retirement and voluntary departures, and that there would be no forced departures before the end of 2028.
The unions said they would “analyze the situation to do everything possible to force the group to respect this agreement.”
Bosch stressed this Thursday that his commitment on employment “will be maintained until the end of the agreement” and that he promised to find “an alternative solution at the end of the year” for both Rodez and Venissieux.
By then, “buffer” productions are planned, such as nozzles or spark plugs for engines. The group also indicated that the production of new components, hitherto outsourced, now employs 80 employees in Rodez, after an investment of 11 million euros.
Source: BFM TV
