Ramp up levemir production!!!!!!!!!! Yet another big drugmaker faces a job action in Europe. This time, nine unions that represent Sanofi-Aventis workers in France plan to strike tomorrow over plans to eliminate more than 900 jobs. “The reality is that these job cuts are part of a vast 2 billion-euro savings plan that group management wants to achieve by 2013. All the group’s business are affected,” the unions said in a statement. A Sanofi spokesman tells Reuters the drugmaker had not announced any new job cuts since unveiling a reorganisation of its French commercial division last month, which would lead to 575 out of 2,800 jobs that will be cut by the end of this year. The unions say they tallied 916 jobs by adding 575 plus 260 unoccupied posts and 81 staffers who are expected to change roles. The unions also note that some 2,700 jobs were axeed after the 2005 merger between Sanofi and Aventis. Three months ago, by the way, Sanofi-Aventis workers blockaded a plant where job cuts were planned. In recent weeks, employees at GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca in the UK have also explored job actions over job cuts and pension freezes (you can read more here and here). And Merck has been battling with Organon employees in the Netherlands over plans to close a facility acquired as part of its purchase of Schering-Plough (back story).
