The tire manufacturer Michelin has informed the unions that it will reduce production at its factories in Vitoria, Valladolid and Aranda del Duero due to the lack of rubber that has caused maritime problems in the Red Sea.
The management of the Michelin factory in Vitoria-Gasteiz has informed the unions of new production stops at the Alava plant on January 20 and 21, which will affect the manufacture of tires for passenger cars and the rubber manufacturing workshop, due to the crisis in the Red Sea that is causing a lack of rubber, the raw material necessary to manufacture tires. This stoppage is in addition to others already planned at the plant for January 13 and 14, and will affect a total of 674 workers, as sources from the UGT union have explained to Europa Press.
In addition, Michelin has also informed this Friday the unions at the Valladolid and Aranda de Duero plants that they will deactivate work shifts during those same days in January for the same reason. In Lasarte, the deactivation of two work shifts in one of the workshops is scheduled for this Friday, affecting 45 of a total of 500 workers, and, in principle, they have not received new notifications.
Michelin management at the Álava plant has announced that it will deactivate seven work shifts in the tourism activity and two in the rubber manufacturing workshop on January 20 and 21. This stoppage, which will affect a total of 674 people of the approximately 3,400 workers at the Alava plant, means stopping the manufacturing of 45,000 tires and 350 tons of rubber, according to UGT sources.
These deactivations of work shifts are in addition to those that were already planned at Michelin Vitoria for January 13 and 14 and which will lead to stopping the production of 40,000 passenger car wheels, 280 tons of Civil Engineering tires, and 1,000 tons of manufacturing of different rubber mixtures. The stops on these two days will affect a total of 920 people.
At the Valladolid plant, as the company has communicated to the unions, the crisis in the Red Sea is affecting supplies in the different activities and, in the case of TMO (tourist tire) it affects 15,700 tires, in MAT /SF (workshop for manufacturing rubber mixtures) in 600 tons and in PLE (retreaded truck tire workshop) in 1,200 tires. In the deactivated shifts between January 20 and 21, about 400 workers out of a workforce of around 1,600 employees will be affected.
In the case of the Aranda de Duero plant, UGT has indicated that the company has informed them that they will have to deactivate shifts for two more days in January (January 20 and 21). In this case, as explained by the union, practically the entire factory will stop, except for a very small group and production will remain at 142,500 covers and 533,857 m2.
