The largest private employer in Navarra, Volkswagen, has announced that from the second quarter of 2024 its need for personnel will decrease by 400 people. The news was announced by the Production Director of Volkswagen Navarra, Miguel Ángel Grijalba, who communicated this forecast to the works council during the first meeting of the negotiating table of the 10th Collective Agreement.
The Volkswagen plant in Landaben directly employs almost 5,000 people and the indirect employment it generates reaches 18,000 people. Therefore, the news has generated a lot of concern in the regional community. The plant's management, however, has clarified that this reduction in personnel would affect a transition period.
Specifically, the management of Volkswagen Navarra has proposed to the committee the approval of a collective agreement that covers the transition period towards the electric car between the years 2024 and 2026. Alluding to the fact that the production programs are provisional, "because they change in depending on the evolution of the products in the market", the director of Planning Engineering of the company, David García Castaño, has communicated, taking the planned data as a reference, that the production forecast for the year 2024 is around 255,000 cars.
The planned production volume for 2025 is 215,000 vehicles, as reported. In 2026, the year of launch of the two electric models - a Skoda and a Volkswagen ID2X -, the production volume is estimated at 200,000 units, which include combustion and electric models.
From there, during the years 2027 and 2028, production volumes of 350,000 cars are planned each year, "figures that will allow us to recover and even exceed the current employment figures," explained the management of Volkswagen Navarra in a statement, exhibiting a optimism regarding the future of the electric car that contrasts with the caution observed in other areas.
Furthermore, the company has conveyed that the fact that the factory is prepared to flexibly and simultaneously produce electric and combustion cars is a "guarantee for the future", since it "protects production levels against possible fluctuations in the market." ".
David García has finally communicated that the level of planned investments is maintained and that "in fact, investments planned for 2025 have been brought forward."
