Volkswagen will only have one shift at the Sao Bernardo plant

Volkswagen will start working only one shift at the Anchieta plant, in São Bernardo do Campo (SP), from November 1.

The company will temporarily suspend contracts of employment (dismissal) for 1.5 thousand employees for a period of up to five months.

The reason is a lack of components for production, especially semiconductors, according to the ABC Metallurgist Union. The company has not confirmed this action.

Automaker ABC Paulista is the third auto maker to adopt layoffs in the past two weeks due to chip shortages, an issue affecting businesses around the world.

Fiat suspended the contracts of 1,800 workers from Betim (MG) for a period of three months, starting from the fourth of this month. Renault will adopt the procedure for the 300 employees of São Jose dos Pinhais (Public Relations) for a period of five months, starting from the 30th.

The French brand has also opened a voluntary dismissal program (PDV) for 250 workers, as well as Honda, which has not disclosed a target, but intends to reduce workforce at factories in Sumare and Etrapina (SP).

Unsecured future

Volkswagen had already given ten days of group furloughs to all employees in ABC’s production area, who returned on the last day 6. It also laid off 800 workers from the Taubaté (SP) unit in the same period.

In Anchieta, Polo, Virtus, Nivus and Saveiro models are produced. About 4,500 metalworkers are working on the assembly line and about 2,500 will work on the one shift that will be serviced. A group of 450 people have been laid off for a few months, mostly workers in the Covid-19 risk group.

The group who will stay at home for two to five months will receive vocational refresher courses, and the federal government will pay a portion of their salary, as a type of unemployment wage.

José Roberto Nóbrega da Silva, general coordinator of worker representation at Volkswagen do ABC, said in a video sent to employees yesterday afternoon that the company is once again going through a delicate moment due to a shortage of ingredients.

“We need to be able to get through this moment and we will follow step by step this still uncertain future,” says the guild leader.

New vacancies. At the same time that some automakers reduced the pace of production, Japan’s Toyota and Nissan announced new shifts and opened job vacancies.

Toyota will operate three shifts starting next month at the plant in Sorocaba (SP) and has already started hiring 850 workers. Nissan will hire 578 employees to work two shifts starting in February.

Even with the improvement in some manufacturers, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (Anfavea) revised downward production forecasts for this year, for the second time in three, which should be between 2.13 million and 2.22 million units.

The numbers represent an increase of 6% to 10% over the previous year, which was one of the worst outcomes for the sector due to the pandemic. At the beginning of the year, the entity’s forecast was for growth of around 20%.

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