Sunday, February 05, 2006

Bosch: Cautious Optimism


The number one employer in Aveyron is the Bosch factory, which produces diesel engine parts for Volkswagen. Recently VW announced that they would discontinue the use of these parts in three years, leaving the Rodez area to wonder -- and worry -- about the future of the plant. In this age of outsourcing and globalisation, manufacturing plants are by definition fragile affairs, and the cancellation of a huge contract would seem to be cause for pessimism. Not so. My friends who work at the plant tell me they aren't even thinking or talking about the issue, and other locals who should know assure me everybody is very optimistic that a new production activity will be found. Let's hope that's the case, because the loss of up to 2,000 jobs in the area would be an unbearable blow to the local economy.

3 comments:

Toulouse Photo Day said...

Very good information!

Anonymous said...

We're planning to do our part to help! We will be remodeling our kitchen in the coming months, and we are planning to install a Bosch dishwasher! Ok, so it's maybe a little different than diesel engine parts, but you never know!

Anonymous said...

Bosch,Rodez should come out with a new product to protect the interest of 1700 people working with them.Bosch should become competetive and reduce costs or else it will be very difficult to survive with Chinese,Indian & Japanese competetion