Posted 1/25/2018 4:50 PM: 34CET
ZARAGOZA, 25 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
“Improving our competitive position is not an option, it’s a matter of survival.” This has been the message conveyed by the general director of Opel Spain, Antonio Cobo, in a letter to the workers of the Zaragoza plant of Figueruelas.
In this same letter has been this week has announced to employees the paralysis of the plan of the new Corsa, among other measures, in the absence of agreement in the negotiation of the collective agreement, that both the company and the workers’ representatives They negotiate since October.
This week, the unions have said that they suspended the negotiations until the company sat down to talk about the points that the whole works council had treated as priorities, among them that the management presents an industrial plan for the Zaragoza factory.
The workers affected by the agreement of Opel Spain, mostly employees in the Zaragoza plant of Figueruelas, have received a personalized letter signed by Antonio Cobo, to which Europa Press has had access. In it, he talks about the situation that the Opel / Vauxhall firm is going through, “which has led to huge losses in recent years”.
In addition, it recognizes that it has failed “to transmit” this situation to the staff and that it has not been able to explain that the competitors of the Zaragoza factory are no longer the German or English plants of Opel / Vauxhall but those that are going to manufacture vehicle of the Common Modular Platform (CMP) in the PSA group. “There are six plants located in Morocco, Portugal, Spain (Madrid and Vigo), France and Slovakia.”
The letter states that “all but one” have manufacturing costs well below those of the Zaragoza factory. “The PSA group is going to make its investment decisions based on the cost of manufacturing in each plant, improving our competitive position is not an option, it’s a matter of survival.”
ECONOMIC PROFITABILITY
Antonio Cobo points out that, faced with the blockade in the negotiation, the group announced that Opel / Vauxhall will only invest in projects that have economic profitability and involve competitiveness agreements with a reduction in investment and manufacturing costs. In addition, “with immediate effect”, all works related to the P2JO Project – new Opel Corsa – are paralyzed and the study of an alternative site in another PSA silver begins.
“The project of expansion of capacity in the body building is also paralyzed, Opel Spain will not opt for investments in new models and the study for the integration in the medium term of the two assembly lines in a single line on the ship begins of final finishing “.
The text states that from the direction of the company will manage “the impacts on volume and loss of employment” in the “most rational and efficient way possible.” In addition, it ensures that workers’ representation will be discussed to incorporate “all these new concepts” in the negotiation of the collective agreement.