The road to electric mobility is not going to be easy for Seat. The automaker has a plan to manufacture zero-emission vehicles at its factory in Martorell (Barcelona) with the help of European Next Generation EU funds, but adapting the facility to the new requirements will cause an inevitable decline in production for several years. From 2024 to 2026, the works will make the normal rhythm of the Catalan center impossible and will cause the dismissal of 20% of the center’s indirect staff.
This was admitted by the subsidiary of Volkswagen AG to the unions this Thursday. The dome headed by Wayne Griffiths did not give specific data, but it did show a decline in activity in 2024 that would not go back until 2026, when the company will already manufacture the group’s small electric, which will be marketed under the Audi, Cupra and Skoda brands.
During this valley of activity, the company will have to manage a surplus of personnel that has not yet been quantified. It will be temporary, yes, but it is one more front in the collective agreement that is negotiating these weeks with the works council.
The focus is on the excess staff that will be produced in Martorell once the electric car is implemented. The organization’s calculations are that the assembly of a clean vehicle requires 30% fewer hours than a combustion one. It also comes into play in the equation that the car that will be manufactured in Catalonia will be small, so it involves less labor than others with greater added value such as the Seat León or the Cupra Formentor.
But the facility can’t just live with one line of business. For this reason, the unions demand that the firm clarify the future of the platform that today assembles the Cupra Formentor -a sales success- and the Seat León and that its future is not guaranteed beyond 2026. It is also unknown what will happen with the line of the Audi A1.
Seat and unions have already agreed on an early retirement plan
Seat revealed at the meeting its intention to eliminate approximately 20% of the indirect personnel it has, the unions explain.
Meanwhile, both parties at the table The group also wants to amortize another 800 jobs by ceasing to replace staff who leave the company. Both measures will be available both for employees of Seat itself and of service provider companies.
“We need an organization with a size and structure that allows us to be more agile, competitive and robust to face future challenges, which implies a profound reorganization also in the indirect area”, they explain from the organization. Both measures would give way to almost 2,200 people.
The third way of cutting is the transfer of workers to the gigafactory of batteries in Sagunto (Valencia). Although it is a possibility that is open, the need for workers would not occur until 2025 and it remains to be seen how many accept mobility.
Seat saves components
The Seat Components plant, which produces gearboxes that will no longer be necessary with the electric car, is left out of the adjustment. The logical thing would have been to assign it the development of the new clean engines, but the propellants will be awarded to the center that Audi has in Hungary.
However, the facility will maintain its activity in the parts business and already has four components guaranteed: two from the area of the car chassis, the control unit for the electric motors that will be used in Martorell and the temperature control of the batteries. that will be made in Valencia.
In addition, the management of the automobile company is negotiating the award of two other pieces that, together with the other four, would maintain up to 500 jobs. “We have the study of the possible award of six new components, conditional on the signing of the collective agreement,” Seat clarified.
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