2023-06-16 10:48:42
Ford Almussafes represents -waiting for further arrivals- the great symbol of the Valencian automotive sector and, with it, of a auxiliary industry that looks with uncertainty at the many doubts that float around the plant. Perhaps one of the most certain is that the Transit Connect will end up leaving the production lines in less than a year despite the fact that to this day the signing of the oval has not confirmed an official date. However, the fact that the moment of your goodbye is not completely clear does not prevent some large direct van providers are already at maximum risk of lowering the blind.
That’s what they pointed out yesterday Sources of Workers’ Commissions to this journal. As announced by ‘Digital Economy’ and confirmed by the aforementioned sources, There are two companies that are in a more delicate position. Specifically, it is both the supplier of seats for this model, Learlike dashboard, SAStwo companies that jointly There are 300 workers who are directly affected by what happens in the Valencian plant. In both cases, from CCOO they assure that “it is possible that they have to close, they are not going to be able to endure”. However, they are not the only ones in danger.
From the headquarters they explain that it is a reality that can be replicated in the short term in other companies and, if a sufficient workload is not guaranteed or certain positions cannot be adapted after the end of Transit, the risk “Unfortunately, at least a thousand” jobs could disappear. In this sense, they recall, “each job that disappears at Ford means losing three indirect jobs at component companies.”
The end of the transit
And it is that the reality of the van is complicated. As for his release schedule, It is expected that after the summer its manufacture will be reduced progressively until, in the spring of 2024 -As confirmed this week by UGT although other sources at the plant suggest that it could be sooner- definitely say goodbye, a disappearance that would lead to a new reduction in employment after the ERE applied this month of May. But, beyond futures, The present of this model is not leaving good feelings either.
Not in vain, between May 15 and 26 not a single unit was produced of this model -a situation that will be repeated in the last week of this month of June- due to a component crisis that has hit the Transit especially hard, leaving even thousands of uncompleted vans due to the absence of an electrical system module. All this meant that, until the end of May, the production of the model was 24% below from that of the same period of 2022.
Hope with shades
But beyond the horizon of Transit, the reality is that -as requested this week by the majority union in Almussafes, UGT- There are several key points that Ford has to clarify and that will also have an impact on employment in its auxiliary industry. The most immediate is if he adds -after resigning last year for not meeting the deadlines- to the second line of the Perte of the electric vehicle, a relevant help in a commitment to the electrification of the factory that even today is a promise set for 2026.
It remains to specify it with investment terms and awarded models, a matter by no means minor. Because, they are clear from CCOO, “with the Plague current levels of employment cannot be maintained” and the risk for the entire sector linked to Ford will be “until there is a new allocation.” Open fronts awaiting news.
Tesla, a horizon too distant to be an alternative: But beyond Ford, the Valencian Community will receive other large multinationals such as Volkswagen and Tesla. From CCOO they assure that the first is not an alternative for suppliers because the companies “are not made to manufacture battery components.” In the case of the second, if confirmed, the aforementioned sources believe “that the times do not fit” because “tests would have to be carried out, start putting the processes in motion and during that time the staff of the automotive companies would be diminished because They wouldn’t have any workload.”
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