Ford has summoned its staff in Valencia to begin a consultation period on a new Employment Regulation File. The meeting, which will be held on May 28, is announced in the same week that the company has clarified part of its new strategy for Europe. The multinational will launch a new vehicle produced in Valencia in mid-2027, a hybrid model that will therefore force it to renounce the Perte aid for the electric vehicle that it had already accepted.
The announcement of the meeting was made by the UGT-PV union, which insists that “to undertake the long journey until the new vehicle reaches the production lines”, the company must specify how much the final surplus of personnel is, “if there is one,” he clarifies.
The ERE that the company now proposes is the second in a short time, since last spring the company and the union already negotiated an ERE for 20% of the workforce that established early retirement at 53 years of age. The restructuring affected 1,144 workers.
Despite the fact that the company’s direction is different from total electrification in its Valencian plant, for the majority union the “Agreement for Electrification”, signed with the management in Europe, continues to be the “fundamental tool” by which the Ford’s global management has reaffirmed its commitment to Valencia.
That is why they defend that, from now on, the Electrification Observatory Commission must take center stage “to analyze the socioeconomic situation, as well as what flexibility measures are necessary, or not, at all times.”
The union insists that, despite the fact that the car model and the dates of the process have changed, the important thing is that the Valencia factory “will have a vehicle and sufficient workload, a situation that unfortunately will not occur in all European factories. ”.
Currently, the company in Almussafes has an ERTE in force that means working at half its capacity, with a single shift at the vehicle assembly plant, motivated both by the cessation of manufacturing of the Transit and by the shortage of supplies. parts in engines and for a lower requirement for the North American market. Specifically, the ERTE affects 1,400 people per day in vehicle manufacturing (800 due to the cessation of Transit and 600 due to lack of production) and 900 people in engines.