Since last April production of the Transit model ceasedthe employees of the plant Ford in Almussafes They were waiting to know the exact number of workers affected by the Employment Regulation File (ERE) that the company was going to apply for the staff surplus.
Finally, and after several previous meetings, the multinational yesterday transferred the unions represented in the Works Committee that will be 1,622 people affected by the ERE. 600 are structural layoffs and for the other thousand a transition solution could be negotiated until production of the new multi-energy vehicle in 2027.
As the company reported yesterday, this model will produce about 300,000 units per year and it will not be fully electric, which will guarantee higher workload and employment levels than an electric platform.
The company assured yesterday that it is committed to working “constructively” with worker representation and with national and regional governments to find all possible opportunities to “reduce the impact on Ford employees, their families and the local community.”
Network Mechanism
For her part, the Minister of Industry, Nuria Montesyesterday asked the Government of Spain to activate the Network mechanism for the entire automotive sector, which faces some difficult years in which it will need “protection” for its human capital.
Montes assured that it is “the perfect opportunity” for this measure of flexibility and stabilization of employment, which activates the Minister council for a sector of the economy or for a specific time cycle through temporary suspension of employment or reduction of working hours.
The sector is affected “due to the lack of definition of the automobile market and will have to go through a few years of difficulties and it needs to be protected, especially its human capital,” he said.
The councilor insisted that the ball is “in the Government's court” and added that Ford is not a regional issue: “It is a factory that produces for all of Spain, all of Europe and the entire world.”
He also pointed out that the Government of the Generalitat has already announced the implementation of measures that include training and professional requalification actions and the creation of an interdepartmental commission to combine the efforts of various Ministries and be “in the day-to-day” of the ERE and be able to take appropriate measures.
For his part, the Automotive and Mobility Cluster of the Valencian Community (AVIA) He assured yesterday that he is working with different training entities, to try to identify training needs, in the short and medium term, both for workers who change their professional destination, and for those who have to update their knowledge, in the face of new challenges. .
Since 2020, when the covid pandemic occurred, problems in the supply and lack of components and the cessation of production of models have led to successive ERTE renewed every three months at the Valencian plant, the last one valid until next 31 of July.
Likewise, the new ERE announced will be the fourth to be applied at the factory in the last four years. In the previous three, the adjustment The workforce has been reduced by 1,900 people, and of the nearly 7,000 workers there were in March 2020, there are currently around 4,800.
The discontinuation of models has coexisted with supply problems and new approaches to face the changes that electrification brings to the automobile market: in the last five years the Valencian plant has seen the transit -April 2024-, S-Max and Galaxy -2023- and the Mondeo -2022-.