Mercedes-Benz will suspend 1,200 contracts on ABC – 04/13/2023 – Market

Mercedes-Benz will temporarily suspend the employment contracts of 1,200 metallurgists at the plant in São Bernardo do Campo (ABC) starting in May. The lay-off was approved by professionals in an assembly this Thursday afternoon (13).

The suspension will be for up to three months. Among the reasons for the shutdown are a drop in production, lack of parts and high interest rates in the country, according to a company statement distributed to workers in early April, when the automaker announced collective vacations for 300 professionals, production in just one shift and week. shorter.

The São Bernardo plant currently has 8,000 professionals, of which 6,000 work in production.

In a note, Mercedes confirms the agreement closed with the workers and says it reiterates “its commitment to constantly seek alternatives with the ABC Metallurgists Union for adaptations and management of the production volume in view of the market demand”.

According to Sandro Vitoriano, one of the directors of the ABC Metallurgist Union, during the suspension of contracts, workers will receive 100% of their net salary during the period and will undergo a professional training course.

“It is important to emphasize that all these workers are guaranteed to return to the factory”, he says. To the workers, Vitoriano stated that whoever enters this lay-off will not participate in the next one, if there is such a need.

“The biggest villain is the abusive interest rate, which makes financing more expensive, people don’t buy and there is a drop in production. Most people don’t buy buses or trucks in cash”, says Aroaldo Oliveira da Silva, director- union executive.

The union also claims that the change in the production structure is linked to the Euro 6 protocol, a set of regulatory standards on the emission of pollutants for diesel engines, which has impacted the market, raising the cost of trucks since 2022.

Crisis since last year

In September 2022, the automaker announced the dismissal of 3,600 workers, which made the category approve a strike for three days. At the time, 2,200 direct employees and 1,400 outsourced employees would be dismissed for restructuring the unit. In addition, several sectors would be outsourced and employment contracts valid until December would not be renewed.

Inaugurated in 1956, the unit is the company’s largest plant outside Germany. At the time, the automaker said that the layoffs were part of a restructuring process to focus efforts on what is currently demanded by the market.

Automakers rate first quarter as bad

The first quarter of this year is evaluated as bad by automakers, even with the 8% increase in the production of light and heavy vehicles. Despite the growth compared to the same period of 2022, Anfavea (association of automakers), did not like the result.

“In these first three months we had eight factory stoppages and two shift cancellations, something similar to the stops verified in early 2022”, said, in a note, the president of the entity, Márcio de Lima Leite.

“The difference is that last year the reason was only the lack of components, while now there are other factors causing collective vacations, such as the cooling of demand.”