The Government of Castilla-La Mancha moves file to reduce the impact of which Mahle, manufacturer of components for automotive, wants to carry out in its Motilla del Palancar (Cuenca) factor and that will affect 550 workers, more than half of its staff. The Minister of Economy, Companies and Employment, Patricia Franco, has announced that Castilla-La Mancha and the Valencian Community-where the company plans to fire 190 employees in their center of Paterna-have requested, together with the Ministry of Industry, a meeting with the highest responsible for the German multinational. The letter is signed by the Minister of Castilla-La Mancha and her Valencian counterpart, Marian Cano, as well as the industry manager, Jordi Hereu. “For the Spanish government, the protection and promotion of Spanish industrial capacity and workforce remain an absolute priority,” says the letter.
Franco unveiled the contacts maintained with the company in recent days to try to delay the decision and work on a reindustrialization plan that guarantees employment and “industrial capabilities in a sector as important as that of automotive.” “Unfortunately, we have not been able to gain some time to be able to raise alternative plans,” he acknowledged this Friday after knowing the news. The Executive of Emiliano García-Page wants to meet the company’s managers now to study “possible reindustrialization options” and “guarantee employment”. The regulation file, Franco lamented, occurs when Castilla-La Mancha records its best records in occupation, active population and decrease in unemployment. If consummated, it would be in recent years.
With 961 workers, the German multinational is responsible for. To the 550 direct jobs threatened by the ERE, in addition, the impact on auxiliary companies is added. “I hope that with the support and collaboration of the competent ministries and the complicity of the Valencian Community we establish a necessary response framework to guarantee employment,” insists the counselor. Franco transfers their support to those affected: “We are with them, with families and we will continue working so that industrial activity remains in Motilla.” In this town of just over 6,000 inhabitants, they still try to assimilate the decision. “It is a very hard news, which will leave us in a very complicated situation,” says the mayor, Pedro Javier Tendero.
The representation of the workers and the company have seven days to form a negotiating table and one month to reach an agreement. In a statement, Mahle justifies the decision in the “multiple winds” that, he indicates, faces the automobile sector “for the slowdown of markets, tariff uncertainties and a lower demand than expected in electric mobility.” Its production facilities for electrification components are “extremely underlined” and does not believe that they reach their full short -term capacity. Mahle considers the dismissals “inevitable”, which will execute in several phases, and undertakes to seek “just and socially acceptable solutions” for those affected. The company, which began its activity in Spain in the 70s, has eight production and innovation centers in which it gives work to almost 2,500 people.
40 million in European funds
A year ago, the German multinational was set by the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, as an example of the use of European funds. Mahle received 40 million euros linked to the belonging of the electric vehicle and the Moves Singular program, with which he planned to double the staff of the Conquense factory. “It is incomprehensible that, just a few months later, that growth path is abandoned and such a drastic and unjustified employment cut, which threatens the industrial activity of an entire region,” denounces the CC OO union of Cuenca. “We will study carefully the documentation that it has committed to share with the Company Committee and immediately begin as many actions as pertinent to prevent the company from carrying out this nonsense,” adds the union.
A few weeks before the intervention of Sánchez in the Congress of Deputies, the Diputación de Cuenca, the City Council of Motilla and the Communities Board presented an investment of 5.1 million to the company to expand the electrical power of the substation of this municipality to the 80 megawatties and guarantee the necessary energy so that Mahle could assume the development of components for the electric car. The García-Page executive also offered the company to adapt the training plans of the Ministry of Education to the labor profiles they required, helping to alleviate the lack of qualified labor. “With regretting we do not solve anything. It is time to be vigilant during the consultation period and make active listening towards all the parties that have something to say in the viability plan,” says the councilor now.
