Barcelona. (EFE) which is now entering a “new stage”, that of hiring former workers.
Today is “historic”, the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, has agreed; the Minister of Business and Labor, Roger Torrent; and the special delegate of the State in the CZFB, Pere Navarro; in the institutional act of the final signing of the resolution of the contest to manage the plot of Nissan in the city of Barcelona, which in May 2020 announced that it would close its three plants in the province of the Catalan capital.
The awarding of the land occupied by Nissan to the logistics operator Goodman, in alliance with the electromobility ‘hub’ led by QEV Technologies and Btech, was announced on February 22 but the signature ratifying that decision was pending. The agreement between the CZFB and Goodman, and between Nissan and the ‘hub’, was also signed at the event.
The ex-workers, pending to be relocated
From here, a new stage begins in this long process of reindustrialization with a focus on hiring former employees of the automobile industry: some 1,250 former workers of the Japanese multinational are waiting to be hired by the ‘hub’, which intends to manufacture electric vehicles.
The ERE of Nissan left 2,525 employees without work at the end of 2020, of which 1,100 agreed to early retirement and slightly less than 1,400 awaited relocation, although some 60 have found other outlets and have given up this option and another 60 have been hired by the manufacturer of electric motorcycles Silence, which already occupies a part of the Free Zone and could increase the number of workers, according to the latest available data.
At the moment, the ‘hub’ has promised to make 600 hires this 2023, with which more than half of the former Nissan employees would remain to find a job opportunity. The indirect jobs that were lost are not counted here, however: between direct and indirect workers, those affected by the closure of Nissan were around 20,000.
“A historic day”
Maroto, Torrent and Navarro have described Monday’s day as historic. “We guarantee the replacement of Nissan with new industrial projects, which will allow the continuity of thousands of jobs that were at risk”, stressed the minister.
He has referred to that “very difficult day” in May 2020, in which Nissan decided to stop producing in Catalonia and from which “the workers asked for solutions and the administrations got to work.”
Almost three years later and after 28 meetings of the reindustrialization table -made up of administrations, worker representatives and Nissan-, Maroto has considered “this crisis over”, the largest she has had to manage since she was minister.
“This milestone has been possible thanks to everyone’s collaboration. It is an example that if we all work together it is possible to reach satisfactory solutions”, he pointed out.
Torrent, in turn, has said that this reindustrialization process has been a “success” because it meets the three objectives set at the beginning: covering the direct jobs affected by the departure of Nissan, lighting up a new industrial project and promoting “sustainable mobility”, linked to the electric and non-combustion vehicle.
“It was a very complex and difficult challenge that has cost a lot to achieve”, he added.
He specifically mentioned the workers’ representatives, who “could legitimately have maintained a different attitude”, but who have acted “responsibly” in this complex process.
The signing of these agreements, he added, represents “a decisive step in the reindustrialization of Catalonia”, since projects such as the electromobility ‘hub’ “pull economic activity beyond its perimeter”, by giving rise to a whole series of related activities.
Navarro has equated this “historic” date to the day in 1967 on which Motor Ibérica, the seed of Nissan in Barcelona, settled in the Zona Franca.
He has also defended that the industrial activity that will be carried out on the 518,000-square-meter plot formally awarded this Monday “is perfectly in line with what we do in the industrial estate as a whole”, where industry, logistics and emerging projects linked to these activities go hand in hand.
Despite the difficulties of the process, he added, “the final result is the best possible” since, despite the different interests at stake, “no one is 100% satisfied and no one is 100% dissatisfied”.