Renault workers object to car factory producing weapons

Moscow (ANTARA) - A large number of workers at the French car manufacturer Renault do not want to produce weapons on car assembly lines, said Florent Grimality, a member of the CGT trade union at Renault, on Wednesday.

“We do not welcome the general trend towards war. We also do not welcome countries that pour billions of euros into weapons production, while we should be allocating budgets to firefighters, teachers, hospitals, and many other sectors that require additional funding,” Grimaldi told the French television station LCI.

Grimaldi emphasised that Renault workers face the risk of redundancy if they refuse to assemble weapons.

Many company workers told him that they “signed up to produce cars, not weapons,” Grimaldi added.

“I will only quote (the French author) Anatole France, who wrote in 1922, ‘They thought they were dying for their country, but in fact they were dying for the industrialists’,” Grimaldi said when asked whether he considered President Emmanuel Macron’s call to strengthen armament to be justified.

Grimaldi noted that Renault workers do not wish to experience war again only to realise the truth behind Anatole France’s words.

In January, Renault signed a contract to produce drones for the French military, according to reports from BFMTV.

In May, Yulia Zhdanova, head of the Russian delegation in the Vienna negotiations regarding military security and arms control, stated that Europe is using civilian infrastructure for military purposes.

In recent years, Russia has highlighted unprecedented NATO activity and troop increases near its western borders.

The Kremlin stated that Russia does not threaten anyone, but will not ignore actions that potentially endanger its interests.