Nissan confirms that Barcelona is in the race to build its new sedan car again

Barcelona (ACN).- Barcelona might finally build Nissan’s new sedan car model, an investment of €130 million creating 1,000 direct positions and 3,000 additional jobs in the supplier industry. On Tuesday, the Nissan’s Vice-President in Europe, John Martin, confirmed that Barcelona is joining the race for the allocation of the new car production again, which is still to be decided by the company’s headquarters in Japan. After having ruled out Barcelona because unions refused to sign Nissan’s final offer of modifying working conditions and reducing salaries in order to increase competitiveness, the unions have made an about-turn in the last few days. With the Catalan Government’s mediation, the union representing the majority of the Barcelona plant workers (Signem-USOC) signed Nissan’s final offer eight days ago. The two other unions, CCOO and UGT – which are the main ones in Catalonia and Spain – presented their own cost reduction plan, accepting almost all of the company’s requirements, including the dual salary scale and the need to save €30 million. In fact, the dual salary scale had been the most critical point during the six-month negotiation, although  it had been accepted two weeks ago by the unions. Nissan will pay 20% less to the new workers, in order to reduce costs. However, what made the negotiations derail was Nissan’s last minute proposal to reduce the total number of days off by two. Finally the unions accepted this point but they are asking for guarantees that the existing workers will have their jobs saved.

Nissan will guarantee the oldest workers’ jobs

After a day-long negotiation between the Catalan Business Ministry and the unions, which started on Monday afternoon and was carried out without interruption even during the night, CCOO and UGT agreed to sign Nissan’s agreement if the company guarantees the jobs of the existing staff. Nissan Motor Ibérica – the Spanish branch of the Japanese multinational – was called to the meeting this morning and found the unions willing to sign its proposal with the aforementioned condition. Nissan accepted the inclusion of this guarantee and now the European branch will put its Barcelona plant forward to host the new car production, which is to be decided by the Japanese headquarters very soon.

The Catalan Government is still cautious, but satisfied with the final agreement

The Catalan Minister for Business and Employment, Felip Puig, considered the final agreement to be “a success” but he is cautious, since the agreement has been finalised in “extra time”. However, he said the Catalan Government will contact Nissan to lobby for the Barcelona plant, which is strategically located in the Zona Franca industrial and logistics district, very close to the airport and sea port.

Nissan would produce 200,000 units of five different vehicles per year from Barcelona

If Nissan finally decides to build its new sedan car in Barcelona, it will consolidate the Catalan capital as a European hub of the automotive industry, where Nissan and Seat have factories, where the car supplier Ficosa is based, where there is a deep-rooted motorbike industry and the Circuit de Catalunya Formula One racing track. Furthermore, the €130-million investment will represent the first sedan to be built in Nissan’s plant in Catalonia. The plant will reach its maximum capacity: 82,000 car units of the new model would be produced per year and the plant would assemble 200,000 vehicles over five different production lines producing five different products.