VALENCIA, Dec. 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Ford factory located in Almussafes (Valencia) has decided to reduce the Temporary Employment Regulation File (ERTE) in the engine plant by one week, while the rest of the departments will continue with the planned stoppages until January 31.
In this way, the engine assembly lines that had planned not to work from December 14 to 23, will finally do so, from December 14 to 21, and will only maintain the stoppages on the 22nd and 23rd of this month.
In the case of the machining lines of the engine plant, work will be carried out until December 23, inclusive, except for the block line that will keep the shutdown from December 14 to 23.
This has been reported by the company at the meeting of the Monitoring Commission of the current ERTE, the sixth in the Valencian factory since November 2018, which initially ended in December but was later extended until January 31, as reported to Europa Press union sources.
“INFLECTION POINT”
The president of the Works Council and UGT spokesman, Carlos Faubel, hopes that this news will be the “first indicator” that for the next year it will be possible to “abandon the path of the ERTE”, rather than in the factory.
Faubel explained that the manufacture of engines tends to a “stability and improvement”, in addition there has been a “rebound” in the North American market which, together with the award of the new 2.0L GDI engine to the Valencian plant, have allowed the ERTE to be shortened .
From STM, its spokesman Paco González expects this to be “a turning point” and this news marks “the beginning of the recovery in demand and sales of Ford Valencia”, despite “the complicated times we are living in that above all uncertainty prevails, “he added.
For the spokesperson of CC.OO. at Ford Almussafes, José Arocas, “it is always positive that ERTE days are removed” although he has reproached the company that once the ERTE is negotiated and in application “call from today to tomorrow” changing the dates.
In the same vein, Mariano Bosch, from CGT, has spoken, who has valued the “good news” that production increases but has lamented the “lack of planning” of the company with “so many changes of days” from ERTE. In any case, he trusts that next year “demand rises” and that the workforce will not be forced into new ERTE.
For its part, the vehicle manufacturing plant will continue with the planned shutdowns on Monday, December 7 and 21, on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 22 and 23, and on Monday and Tuesday, January 4 and 5, 11 and 12 and 18 and 19 and on Monday the 25th of this last month, in total almost a month off.