France : final agreement reached in the multi-union negotiations

HP in France will be quite peaceful in the next 18 months as a final agreement has been reached in front of the 3 working councils with most of the 5 unions, puting an end to the largest social conflict ever for this company.

Worforce Reduction will start third week of July, and about 900 employees (17% of staff) are expected to leave on a voluntary basis until end of 2007. It could be more with new talks coming July 10th after knowing how many employees want to leave exactly.