The UGT will demand from the Spanish government Immediate activation of the Red mechanism to improve the outlook for the automotive sector given the doubts he sees in the process of conversion to electric vehicles, both because of the slow deployment of the necessary infrastructure – payment and charging – and because he now considers that “one can wonder” if the car fuel will actually disappear.
“These funds will allow us to make a reconversion process in better conditions and pay attention to the case where there is a sector, whether in the general area or in that of an autonomous community or even a company that needs it”, indicated the general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, before participating this Monday in Zaragoza in a meeting of delegates with the general secretary of the UGT Aragón, Juan José Arceiz, who expressed his concern about the “valley” situation experienced by the automobile sector.
“Over the next two years, Until the entire Stellantis platform is awarded, it could be a difficult time for the industry. and we must be prepared so that when these new platforms are launched, no one is left behind and the sector continues to be as dynamic as it is now,” he warned.
Concerning this transition period, the leader of the UGT in Aragon also mentioned the tool of temporary work regulation files: “We have not yet finished starting the electric car while we are stopping manufacturing thermal cars , therefore “It is such a moment that it can become complicated and that is why we want to make proposals on whether we apply the ERTE or whether we talk about this red plan that contains labor reform” ,
As part of an approximate reduction in 25% of jobs the sector faces due to conversion to electric vehiclesÁlvarez drew attention to the lack of measures to support this deployment of the electric car: “In Spain, the end dates of carburetion cars have been widely visualized, but this has not been accompanied by infrastructure and today ‘today here it is much more It is more difficult to recharge an electric car than in Portugal. And we still have not implemented a single payment system for recharging,” he criticized.
Furthermore, he put in question, the carbureted car will disappear: “I sincerely believe that today everything is much more questionable than a few years ago. We will see if that goes away, because there is technology that is starting to show that carbureted cars can be made with very little effort. ‘environmental impact point of view,’ he said. laid.
Some doubts about which he considers that Spain cannot do much: “We have a very high level of automobile production, but in reality there is only one and only half of our own multinationals. Given how we are, the Next Generation funds have come to save our lives. Because to be able to maintain this sector without such a large injection of money as has been made, without our own multinational companies to be able to launch automobile designs in our country, I really think it is remarkable,” he said. he declared.
In any case, the regretted the increase in prices established by the EU: “We are a country that is not very lucky, because the increase in customs tariffs on electric cars in Europe fundamentally harms us, because there is a car that is Spanish, of European technology, which, ultimately, was manufactured in China, but which, in reality, is a 100% Spanish car, from a technological point of view, which will suffer these tariffs, unfairly, and which, surely, will have repercussions on SEAT, which is the company that is in this process, taking into account that in addition, the car, in a few years, will be produced in Spain”, he explained.
Technology in time to compete with Turkey and Asia
For his part, Arcéiz assured that the main objective of the union is that “jobs are not lost”: “In Aragon, for example, we have a powerful bodywork sector which must not be affected by reconversion and for the rest there are the ERTE, but in the automobile observatory we have to see what drawings we have of the thermal and electric car, what parts are disappearing and, above all, we have to. equip our businesses so they can obtain technology to compete with North Africa and Turkey“.
To achieve this, the union leader of the UGT Aragón recalled European aid: “It would not hurt if these New generation fundsthat are not yet distributed, whether they are distributed, but intended for the purchase of new technologies, because we also say that we cannot start designing technologies now, we cannot, because we do not have no time. In two years, all the parts will have to be distributed and, one out of two, either the technology will be bought and implemented in the companies, or we will not arrive in time for them to compete with their competitors,” he said. he warned.
