another ERTE of 750 employees will apply

Address Ford Almussafes informed trade unions this Wednesday of the need for a new temporary employment rules file (ERTE) due to falling demand for cars and lack of components for engine assembly. According to union sources, they intend to extend it until April next year.

The company reported this to an advisory committee with worker representatives, which created a negotiating committee for this new ERTE. It will meet again next Friday.

The company justified the need for this new temporary regulation, which will begin on Monday, February 12 and last until April 30, given the “fall in production” at auto plants and “lack of capacity at some suppliers.” ” in the Motors division.

(Ford Kuga redesign guarantees three more years of operation at Almussafes plant)

In particular, regarding the impact of this new ERTE, a partial shutdown of the above-mentioned 750 daily workers will be introduced on a rotational basis, “where possible”, with a maximum duration of 15 days in total per employee. In turn, the Engines plant will experience a shutdown “equivalent to four days of production.”

From UGT in applications sent to Europe Press, the majority union, was “open to a partial and time-limited opening of the bargaining window.” Representatives of this union, however, told management that they did not want to negotiate on ERTE, which in no case would go “beyond” the Easter holidays (March 28) while the plant awaits “news on investment and workload.”

Regarding the ERTE days and the number of workers affected, the UGT stressed that they must go “in accordance” with the “problems that arise” due to the “lack of planned production and not due to excess staff”, which the union believes , This happens in the factory.

For this reason, he called on the company to “correct the numbers well” for this new ERTE, while warning that the surplus occurred both in the engine plant due to the disappearance of the night shift and in the car plants after the march of the van. intended for the American market, “will not be able to add to the daily lists of victims.”

He also noted that on production days in two shifts of “Cars” (950 cars) and “Engines” (1,700 units) “there will be no one in the employment regulations.”

(Almussafes is asking Ford to produce hybrid vehicles while the company decides to switch to electric vehicles.)

ERTE’s proposal comes after Ford of Europe Vice President Kieran Caghillwill inform the UGT this Monday that the company is “working on an alternative to solve the problem” that has arisen at the plant due to the uncertainty that the electric car currently generates, as the union organization said in a statement.

“According to Ford’s European vice president, the problem is being resolved,” UGT said after a meeting on Monday with various European executives from the multinational.

Production in Almussafes is approaching one of its lowest levels in a decade. Ford presented a new version of its model Kuga, which guarantees another three years of work at the Valencian factory. This news is just a relief at a time of great uncertainty surrounding the aforementioned delay in the arrival of electric vehicles at the plant.

It should be remembered that Ford Almussafes has lost models in recent years. After exhaustion Mondeo, S-Max And galaxywill also stop production of the van Unite next April.