Trade unions and management have agreed a deal to preserve jobs into the next decade at the Ford car factory at Almussafes, near Valencia, in Spain, with pay rises to be implemented over the next three years.
At the end of 2017, the company announced plans to invest €750 million in modernising the plant, to cover production of its new Kuga SUV model. Ford employs almost 8,000 people at the site, which is one of its two largest assembly operations in the world.
Just over 51% of employees voted to accept the ‘Horizon 2020s’ plan, which will bring a 2.5% pay hike in 2019, 1.5% in 2020, and the inflation index rate (CPI) plus 0.5% in 2021. “This agreement will deliver stability for the next four years across the whole facility, and will also maintain workers’ purchasing power,” Carlos Faubel, head of the UGT Almussafes union and Ford EWC board member, told Planet Labor.
At the same time, the company has agreed to full-time replacements for all retiring workers, until 2022, and to recruit some 20 young local apprentices each year. Staff employed since 2009 can also pay up to 1% of gross salary into a supplementary pension fund, which will be topped up 50:50 by the company. Local CC.OO General Secretary José Miguel Arocas hailed the agreement as exemplary, marking the end of the post-crisis salary freeze.