Workers at Volkswagen’s Landaben factory in Navarre, northern Spain, are considering a new strike and protest campaign –the second since last June– after the company withdrew a promise to increase the site’s car production rates, just-auto learned on Monday.
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The pledge was conditional on workers accepting a new wage deal for which negotiations have dragged on since June. When workers rejected the company’s final offer last Thursday, VW dropped its promise to make 10,000 extra units of the Polo supermini, Landaben’s breadwinner.
A strike schedule could be announced as soon as Monday evening, a workers’ committee official told just-auto.
VW Spain officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to local press, the workers committee’s “difficult attitude” is undermining VW’s faith on the site’s economic viability and could prompt the company to move the Polo successor to Bratislava, Slovakia, which is competing for the business.
VW made about 211,000 Polos at Landaben last year, over 20,000 less than originally scheduled, as workers called strikes to force VW to negotiate the new labour contract.
Nine months later, it seems like there’s only more trouble ahead.
Ivan Castano
