The management of Ford Spain and the majority union at the Almussafes (Valencia) factory, UGT, have reached an agreement on Tuesday to apply an Employment Regulation File (ERE) that will affect 1,144 workers, 20% of the workforce, through early retirement plans from the age of 53 and an incentive leave program. With this redundancy formula, and in order to encourage the departure of younger workers, the additional compensation for those who leave before June 30 has been increased from 20,000 euros to 40,000 euros gross.
This Monday the company presented a proposed agreement in which it agreed to lower the age of early retirement to 53 years, as requested by the unions, but under different conditions from those of the rest of the older workers. The unions rejected it and the management advanced that this Tuesday it would present a final proposal.
The agreement for this ERE comes in the same month that the Almussafes factory says goodbye to manufacturing the S-Max and Galaxy models because the multinational is accelerating its strategy towards the total electrification of its passenger vehicles in 2030 and its entire portfolio in 2035. Thus, it will be left with the production of only the Kuga, the currently heaviest, until the manufacture of the new electric ones that have been assigned to the Valencian factory.
Almussafes was the factory chosen by Ford to produce the company’s new electric vehicle platform from 2025, a decision that ensured the workload for years to come, the company’s management explained that the transformation of production would also mean resize the workforce because the manufacture of electric vehicles requires less manpower.
