GM in São José will have collective vacation – 03/09/2023 – Market

Metallurgists from São José dos Campos (90 km from São Paulo) closed an agreement with GM to freeze new layoffs until April 19, when there is a forecast for a new round of negotiations.

The date was set to be one week after the end of the collective vacation period defined by the automaker. About 80% of the factory will be at home from March 27th to April 13th.

The announcement of collective vacations was made following 34 layoffs carried out on Friday (3). In all, the São José unit has around 4,000 employees. On Tuesday (7), the workers staged a strike in front of the factory. On the same day, the automaker called the union to talk.

According to Weller Gonçalves, president of the Metallurgist Union of São José dos Campos and Region, GM justified the layoffs and the pause by the need to readjust production. Failures in the supply of components such as semiconductors have still disrupted the pace of production.

Although the cut was small in relation to the total number of employees, metallurgists considered it an indication that more layoffs would be made. The entity is concerned about GM’s plan to restructure its business to invest more in the production of electric vehicles.

In São José do Campos, most of the production is dedicated to the S10 pickup truck; there is also the production of Trailblazer. In 2021, the S10 had 35,045 units sold in Brazil, a volume that dropped to 27,128 units in 2022. The drop is 22.6%.

GM confirms the granting of collective vacations and says it will make a temporary adjustment in the production of the S10.

“The company signed the stability agreement and this is important for us to have a little breath to negotiate”, says Gonçalves, from the union.

This isn’t GM’s first such break in San Jose. Since the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020, the semiconductor chip supply chain has experienced instabilities in the pace of supply. The factory has already suspended production shifts and granted lay-offs, temporary suspensions of employment contracts.