Critical blow to the team Ford Almussafes. The multinational company announced to workers’ representatives this morning its Employment Regulation File (Ere) that it intends to apply to the factory on the way to an electrified future that will require less labor to produce vehicles. It will affect 1,144 employees, as stated in the company statement and endorsed by both UGT-Ford, the majority union in the factory, and STM-Intersindical. Currently, the workforce of the Almussafes factory is equivalent to approximately 5,750 workers, so these are 1,140 employees would be equivalent to almost one in five jobs (19.8%).
As highlighted by the multinational, the reason for this – framed in Comprehensive restructuring of its operations in Europe today it goes one step further by announcing the downsizing of the workforce in Spain” – mainly due to. “It was already announced that production of the S-Max and Galaxy was discontinued” as of this April. Together, both models represented 6% of the units produced at the Valencia plant, which closed 2022 with 245,000 vehicles; most of them were the Ford Kuga, the only vehicle to resist until the arrival of pure electric vehicles planned for 2026. .
difficult negotiation
Sources consulted from the company were assured of this massive reduction in the workforce. S-Max and Galaxy “models with a lot of workload” and the fact that behind the Ere’s high volume there are other factors “related to the efficiency of the market that made this adjustment necessary” and also affect a portion of the engines that they refuse to give an approximation to. impact concrete Also on whether there will be a single file or if there will be more in the future, They pointed out that “no other plans are currently being made” from Ford.
It’s the same line that Carlos Faubel, the factory leader and head of the works council, advocated when Ere assured him with “a lot” and “a complex negotiation” in an interview with this newspaper two weeks ago. . At the time, Faubel stated that his intention was to “hold as much work as possible” and that “the breakups we have to face were all voluntary, none of them traumatic”, a complicated path with this morning’s announcement.
for him, because STM-Intersyndikal made dismissals a “dramatic reality” and that his intention is to “reach an agreement for people to volunteer” at the exits.
according to plans
Ford, on the other hand, stated in his informative text on Ere that he would “work constructively with unions to mitigate the impact of this situation”. In this sense, in another statement, the UGT demanded that “some plans suitable for this very sensitive situation” be agreed upon, without claiming that “the conditions of the previous plans are cheaper”. In this sense, the dossier demanded that the company put forward “necessary resources without cutting costs” to provide a solution, which should also be added to the “when and how to talk about investments” issue related to the electrification agreement.