Management to meet unions at Ford on Monday

The management of Ford Europe has confirmed the call for a meeting today, with UGT, the majority union at the Almussafes factory (Valencia), in which the workers’ representatives will put on the table the commitment made by the multinational with the template in the Agreement for Electrification, “on which they must respond.”

This was explained by UGT in a statement at a time when the factory faces uncertainty about the arrival of the investments necessary to produce the firm’s electric vehicles.

Last November, Ford announced – according to the majority union UGT – that it was postponing “any decision that has to do with investments” for the electrification of the factory, following the visit to Almussafes in November by the Director of Operations of Ford Motor Company, Kumar Galhotra.

The Valencian factory was chosen by Ford in 2022 to produce its new electric vehicle platform starting in 2025, a decision that ensured the workload in the coming years and that led to an agreement with UGT so that the new company’s agreement, signed in April of that year, included salary and flexibility measures conditional on electrification. The award to Ford did not prevent the workforce from having to be resized with an ERE that has affected 1,124 workers.

While the investments have not begun, whose planned schedule is already delayed as the union has warned on several occasions, the factory has had to adjust its production due to the reduction in sales. This year Ford Almussafes stops manufacturing the Transit van and the only model until the arrival of the new electric ones is the Kuga. In January the automobile company presented the new version of this model manufactured at the Ford plant in Almussafes.

The company has applied for both lines of the new call for the Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of the Electric and Connected Vehicle (Perte VEC II). The Ministry of Industry has awarded 37.6 million euro from the battery line to establish a battery assembly plant at the Almussafes factory and Ford has also requested aid for the electric vehicle value chain.

On the other hand, UGT explained to workers this Friday that in their January payroll they will receive the compensatory pay agreed upon in the Agreement for Electrification, which this year amounts to 2,000 euro.

The union has criticised the fact that salaries are received “15 days late” and has announced that it will go to the Labour Relations Directorate to resolve this issue.

“This is something that practically does not happen anywhere. In the past there was an explanation, given the size of the workforce and the limited technological means, but today it seems logical to ask the company to take the necessary steps to tune in, the digital delivery of our payrolls with the deposit of the salary into our bank accounts,” they indicated.

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