The president of the works council of Ford Almussafes, Carlos Faubel, leaves the meeting held in Cologne with the European staff of the multinational satisfied. He says that he has a “positive signal” after speaking with the company, who had been asked to clarify whether or not he would enter the next call for the electric vehicle Perte because, if he did not, the electrification deadlines for Almussafes were beginning to compromise. .
This Wednesday after finishing the meeting, Faubel has confirmed that Ford will present a candidacy for the Perte “both for batteries and for vehicles, but with nothing definitive”. That is to say, the president of the works council of the Valencian factory assumes that “we have to continue waiting”. However, he does return from Germany with the commitment to “meet periodically with the European leadership after the summer, starting in September, because decision-making is expected from Detroit during the last quarter of the year.”
That is why the plant is now entering what Faubel calls a “tense wait”, to see what deadlines the factory has. “Surely the deadline for the execution of the vehicles will be delayed,” added the union representative. And it is that although Ford has always talked about producing “in this decade”, union sources have considered the idea of ??starting to produce in 2025-2026.
Faubel explains that they have asked the management of the company to schedule the deadlines because, if they do not do so, the transition in the plant until then becomes very complicated. Above all, taking into account that there is currently an active 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.
In April, the Valencian factory stopped producing the S-Max and Galaxy models in the context of changing the total electrification of its passenger vehicles in 2030 and of its entire portfolio in 2035. The plant is left only with the production of the Kuga, in waiting for electric models, an assignment that the plant has been waiting for since it learned that it was the one chosen against the Saarlouis plant (Germany) to become Ford’s European electrification platform.
Tomorrow marks one year since that decision, which boosted the spirit of the Valencian factory and its entire auxiliary industry, since the company stated in its statement that it would ensure “high-value employment and increase Ford’s offer of premium electric vehicles, of high performance and fully connected.
