Stellantis Zaragoza suspends the night shift indefinitely due to lack of parts

The plant of Stellantis in Figueruelas (Zaragoza) has suspended the night shift indefinitely in the two vehicle assembly lines of the industry due to the lack of supply of electronic components with which to guarantee production, and has announced possible concrete and temporary adjustments in the workforce.

This has been confirmed by sources of the automotive group, who have reported in the last hours of the suspension of the night shift on line 2 of the assembly factory of the Opel Corsa, which is added to the one agreed last month for line 1, manufacturing the Crossland X and the C3 Picasso.

These sources have pointed out that, despite the fact that the announcement “Sounds drastic”, the production volume will be the same as demand is not affected. The lack of parts and the need to adjust production has forced measures to be taken to achieve manufacturing in a “more efficient” way, with two shifts instead of three and fewer days of unemployment.

Early retirement or transfers

At the same time, the company will open a negotiation period starting tomorrow to assess the possibility of applying measures such as early retirement pending or temporarily transferring part of the workforce to other plants with launching products or meeting specific worker requirements.

The sources referred to have highlighted that one of the main concerns of the unions refers to the situation of a part of the workers who opted for the night shift for reasons of conciliation of working life with family life.

After noting that they have requested “volunteers” to temporarily move to other plants, they added that all decisions will be discussed and coordinated with the union representatives of the workforce.

In any case, they have recalled that the plant still has 80 days agreed until the end of the year for production and that “if it is not the night staff, it will be the morning staff who should avail themselves of this option.”

“Jug of cold water”

Works council sources have explained that the announcement has once again represented a new “jug of cold water” after the productive stoppages accumulated since last July, and that the suspension of the night shift will force part of the workforce to walk into temporary employment regulation file (ERTE) on a rotating basis.

They have assessed, however, that the company does not plan to carry out layoffs between the 650 workers of the night shift, and although he will not renew the contracts of some thirty casuals, they will possibly be relocated to the day shift.

This new strike is in addition to the suspension of the night shift last May and those carried out already days July 22 and 23, as well as from August 15 and 16 and from September 5 to 8, a situation that caused concern among the factory’s workforce.