Uncertainty at the Ford plant in Almussafes (Valencia) remains in the short term, although the American manufacturer has received funding from the Perte VEC II call for its electrification. The Valencian factory will make a new production cut at the end of this month to adapt to sales of its models, which are also scheduled to stop for a week in October.
As sources from UGT, the majority union in the works council, explained, the production volume of the only two models it currently operates, the Kuga and the Transit van, will be reduced at the Valencia factory by almost 400 units, from 1,100 to 700 vehicles daily.
However, the Spanish subsidiary will generally not resort to a new temporary employment act (Erte), as it has done since the pandemic. From UGT they assure that they have informed management that they are not ready to negotiate this measure and that the labor surplus must be accepted through the use of production days next year or certain relocations on the assembly lines and tasks.
The union insists that its position is not to negotiate labor adjustments while the electric models, investments and planned production of future electric cars in Valencia remain secret.
To address this reality, in addition to reducing its daily production, the plant plans to shut down for a full week in October, which is expected to include the October 9th (regional holiday) and October 12th holidays, according to union sources.
He has already cut staff this year
Ford has already approved a labor code (ERE) in Spain to reduce its workforce by more than 1,000 people in April due to the decline in production and the discontinuation of several of its models, and is waiting to start producing a new electric car platform that the multinational corporation has not yet announced.
Precisely Almussafes will also stop assembling the Transit van in the coming months, which is already reflected in production volumes. It is expected that part of this will be terminated in December and the commercial vehicles will be completely abandoned in March, which will result in a new staff surplus that will be added to the expected staff surplus in the coming weeks.
In addition, Ford’s investment plans to electrify the Spanish plant, which now has around 5,000 employees, are not being implemented despite their announcement more than a year ago.
