Finance minister calls on Peugeot to cut fewer jobs

PARIS - The Associated Press

French Finance Pierre Minister Moscovici says carmaker PSA Peugeot-Citroento revise its job cuts plan.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici has said a plan from French carmaker PSA Peugeot-Citroen to eliminate thousands of jobs goes too far and the number of job cuts must be reduced.

The struggling auto company announced plans last week to eliminate 8,000 jobs and close a major factory due to the drop in the European market. President François Hollande has already said the current plan is unacceptable and must be renegotiated.

Moscovici refused to get into the details of what the government would be asking for, but said yesterday that the state has “levers” it can deploy in negotiations.

He said the government’s goal would be to reduce the number of jobs eliminated.

He spoke during an interview with Europe-1 radio, iTele television and Le Parisien newspaper.

Spanish unions have slammed the announcement about job cuts, calling it as a “declaration of war” and an “earthquake.”