the factory Ford in Almussafes still holding on to her survival. Plant management and works council have signed the new collective agreement which includes an ‘agreement for electrification’ which they reached on January 27 at a meeting held at the company’s headquarters between Ford-Europe and the UGT union (majority in the plant). It also regulates the labor relations until 2026, as well as the equality plan, a telecommuting agreement and a flexible working day. In addition, the signing of the agreement coincides precisely with the collection of the first payment for the concept of ‘electrification’.
The agreement, which has been signed only by UGT, majority union at the Almussafes plant, with the rejection of the rest of the unions (STM-IV, CCOO and CGT). According to those responsible for the committee, the new agreement “governs Ford’s labor relations for the next five years, and should make it easier for Almussafes to be the plant that receive both models of electric vehicles that the Ford company will manufacture in Europe”. The future of the Valencian factory depends on that award. The flexibility of the workforce has been crucial in this new agreement, and from UGT they point out that in recent weeks the employees who were teleworking have been returning to the face-to-face system.”Given that the pandemic is over, this should enable a new teleworking contract and flexible hours,” they point out.
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That agreement has valid from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2026 and establishes non-consolidable linear increases in the salary tables that add up to 7,000 euros between 2022 and 2025 for the factory workforce, and return to the CPI in 2026. Now everything goes through the adjudication of the two new electric models. something to which the German plant in Saarlouis also opts. In fact, if the manufacturing of these vehicles is not assigned to the plant, the agreed wage increase will be the CPI plus 1% for 2022, retroactive to January.
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The need for that award is vital to the future of the plant. In addition, it must be taken into account that one of the advantages that Ford Almussafes would offer the company is the connection with the future battery plant that the Volkswagen Group and Seat will build in Sagunto to supply its Spanish factories. All of this is within the proposal for PERTE which will be presented shortly. The agreement between Ford and Volkswagen, in force, could allow a part of those batteries to go to Ford for the production of these new electric vehicles.
From UGT they point out in this sense that “in the meetings of the Ford European Works Council, we make an effort to try to convince the management that it should seek feasibility alternatives for the plant that will inevitably stop manufacturing cars”. Once Ford’s decision is known, “we will have to work on finding solutions for the surplus of personnel that will occur in Europe as a result of all this transformation”.