Nissan Japanese Union raps French on Renault Power Struggle

Nissan Motor Co's Japanese union criticized the French government on its move on the automaker's ally Renault and pushes to solve power struggle.

The union announced Wednesday that the French government's move to get double voting rights in Renault is unacceptable. The move would destroy the alliance between the two car makers.

According to Bloomberg, the last time the union gave a public appeal was 16 years ago. Union president Hiroyuki Ohkita said the last time they shared their views to the public was to respond to Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn's attempt to close a Nissan plant back in 1999.

In a report by Autoblog, the union said, "We support the numerous attempts of Nissan to engage with the French government to find a balanced and constructive solution that will benefit and strengthen the Alliance."

Reuters reported that Nissan board members had a meeting on Monday to negotiate shareholding issues between Nissan and Renault. The French government bought more shares from Renault bringing their stake in the company to 19.7 percent in April from 15. Nissan made proposals to prevent the French government from increasing its control by bringing the companies' cross-shareholding to a rebalanced 25-35 percent.

The Japanese Union said in a statement that they support the attempts of Nissan to coordinate with the French government to balance and strengthen the Alliance. The union also said that the French government's measures on Renault was "unacceptable and against the intended spirit of the Alliance."

In the Tokyo trading Thursday, Nissan grew 0.7 percent. Its shares went up 23 percent in 2015, surpassing the 14 percent increase for the benchmark Topix index. Renault owns a total of 43 percent of Nissan, while Nissan only owns 15 percent of Renault. Also, Nissan has no voting rights for the stakes it owns on its partner.

According to people familiar with the issue, Nissan has proposed measures to Renault board members in October that would give the Japanese auto maker voting rights in its ally, to reverse the one-sided control in the alliance.