Pamplona (EFE).- Representatives of the Volkswagen Navarra works council (UGT, CCOO, ELA, LAB and CGT) have shown their surprise this Friday at the “magnitude” of the workforce surplus in the period of transition to electric vehicles, since that for a year and a half both production (150,000 fewer cars) and staff (2,500 fewer workers) will be halved.
According to the calendar presented by the management, which the committee has made public at a press conference, by 2024 the planned production is 250,000 units and from April of that year, when production of the Polo ceases, there will be a surplus of 25% workforce (about 1,500 jobs).
The planned production for 2025 (Taigo and T-Cross models) is 150,000 cars, which means a 50% drop in the number of workers (2,500 fewer), a situation that will continue until mid-2026, a year with a Planned production of 200,000 cars.
In 2027, with the transition already done, the expected production is 300,000 cars, but in any case there would be a surplus of 600 workers, the unions have reported, considering it essential that the new plant be located on the factory grounds battery cell assembly to absorb that surplus.
“We were not aware of the magnitude”
The president of the Volkswagen Navarra works council, Alfredo Morales (UGT), stressed that the unions already knew that until 2026 they were going to go through a “small crossing of the desert”, but “we were not aware of the magnitude” of the drop in production and workforce surplus during that transition period, which he has described as a “bathtub”, due to its shape in the graph.
The committee, he has pointed out, has already transferred to the management that measures must be agreed to guarantee employment during those years, measures “that we do not have today”, and they also understand that it is essential that the cell assembly factory batteries is located on Volkswagen land, so that the plant has “a future that we deserve from 2026”.
In addition, it has calculated that this surplus of 600 workers would be multiplied by six in the supplier park, approximately 20% of the total number of workers in that sector.
Volkswagen Navarra, he said, refers to the “higher levels” of the multinational on this issue, and for this reason the committee has already requested a meeting with the “higher levels” of the group, since “we want the same treatment” as in other plants.
In this sense, he pointed out, “it is beyond our comprehension” that there is doubt as to whether the new factory is going to be installed in Volkswagen Navarra, unless, he commented, the multinational wants to save on investment by awarding production to a third party. The information that has reached the committee, he has added, is that they could be looking for another location for this plant in Navarra.
All unions, on the same line
For CCOO, Carlos Zalduendo believes that management and unions have to be able to agree on measures that make activity more flexible and give stability to the workforce, in addition to locating the battery assembly factory on factory grounds.
Igor Peñalver, from ELA, has assured that it is surprising that “the industrial project” of Volkswagen Navarra is in question “after all the efforts made by the staff” and has wondered if this situation is due to “possible blackmail” from the company with a view to the next negotiation of the agreement.
LAB’s spokesman, Raúl Portillo, stressed that “it must be clear to everyone that this unit of the committee is not fictitious” and has asserted that, although they do not want a “competition” with Seat, “it is not acceptable” that this subsidiary of the group decides where the battery assembly plant is to be located.
Óscar Añorbe, from CGT, has denounced that the unions have complied “strictly, to the last comma” with the agreements that have been reached with management in recent years, but not the company, regarding, for example, the production guarantee.
