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The Dacia Renault Group faces a manufacturing crisis after over 80 per cent of its 13,000 factory workers walked out this morning in an open-ended strike over pay.
Unions are pushing for wage increases of up to 70 per cent, which works out at an average of $200 per month for all factory workers. The company has already offered a 19 per cent rise, but this has been rejected.
Despite the success of the Dacia Logan, which sold 200,000 units last year and which saw a 60 per cent increase in sales in January 2008, Dacia maintains that it is unable to meet the worker's demands "in the current economic and social climate”. The firm is already concerned about increasing competition in the emerging markets that count for most of its sales. Russia, Morocco and India are among the biggest markets for the Renault-owned brand, but Dacia fears that rival budget manufacturers are about to encroach on its sales.
The dispute will be viewed with interest by European car makers, many of whom are considering moving production eastwards. It proves that even companies already based in low-wage economies like Romania are not immune from industrial disputes.
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