One of lime and one of sand for Ford Valencia. After learning on March 28 that the European management of the multinational will assign a new “multi-energy” vehicle to the Almussafes factory, the UGT-PV union assures that the company must enter a new temporary ERTE of two months duration until the company can specify more details about the manufacturing of the new vehicle.
“With the information we have, the alternative can be no other than negotiating,” the union said in a statement released this Thursday at noon. UGT-PV, with a majority in the works council of the Valencian factory, adds that “if the deadlines we envision are confirmed, it will be absolutely necessary to involve the different administrations and governments in order to activate the RED Mechanism.”
This mechanism, which is activated by the Council of Ministers for a sector of the economy or for a specific time cycle, can lead to the temporary suspension of the employment contract or the reduction of the working day of workers and is one of the measures that Unions requested some time ago for the ceramic sector, with great repercussions on the Castellón industry.
The UGT-PV union met again this Wednesday in Cologne with the management of the company, and from the meeting they expected more details on manufacturing volumes, launch date and workforce that will be needed, issues that also the auxiliary industry, through of the AVIA cluster, requested information to adapt to what will be new demands of the driving company. However, UGT-PV assures that the company’s management has told them that right now it needs “some time”, a period that the same union estimates at about two months.
In the statement issued by the union, it assures that they are going to call on the management of the Valencian plant to activate the career development plans “as soon as possible” even if the ERTE is in place. Let us remember that this ERTE will coexist with the previously extended one, which should end on March 28 and was extended for a period of three weeks until April 19.
Likewise, UGT-PV announces that over the next two months there will be contacts between the union, the Ford works council and the European and local management.
