Hours after workers announced four 24-hour strikes and the possibility of indefinite stoppages at Volkswagen’s Landaben car factory in the Navarre province of Spain, management said it would not modify a final offer to renew the site’s wage contract.
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“The main aspects of the offer are final and definitive and are impossible to improve,” VW said in a statement. “They are the most favourable for staff and the best of all signed in Spain’s automobile factories currently.”
VW and trades unions would not detail the exact terms of the company’s wage offer.
Meanwhile, the Navarre region’s government announced it will intervene in the matter to help the parties table a deal as soon as possible
VW workers earlier had said they would launch four 24-hour strikes starting 15 March and could begin an indefinite stoppage on 13 April.
Unions are angry at the company’s decision to end negotiations over a new collective wage agreement, which have dragged on for nine months.
“If nothing is resolved we are going to begin a full indefinite strike on 15 April 15,” the union official said.
The strikes will take place on 16, 23, 28 and 30 March 16, 23, 28 and 30 March. Simultaneously, workers will hold demonstrations at the Landaben factory and in the nearby city of Pamplona on 23 and 24 March, the official added.
According to the official, a key issue holding up a deal is workers’ demand that the company improve compensation for emergency factory closings or unforeseen production stoppages.
Ivan Castano
