Nissan’s New Labor Deal Too Late for Barcelona?

MADRID – Nissan Spain finally has its new labor deal inked with unions at the Barcelona plant, but after five months of hard negotiations the deal may be coming too late to ensure the facility lands a second new model.

The three biggest unions in the plant (Sigen-USOC, UGT, and CCOO) rejected a new productivity plan proposed by the auto maker in October, saying they already had signed a concessionary deal at the beginning of the year that promised the factory would build the replacement for the Navara pickup in 2014.

Plans call for a €130 million ($177 million) investment and 1,000 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs, with production of the new Navara replacement slated at 60,000 units annually.

The subsequent rejected proposal offered to increase output by 24,500 units annually, in exchange for further concessions.

In November, Nissan Spain launched talks again, this time asking for a 25% cut in pay for new workers hired and additional labor flexibility that would see work days increased to 227 annually from 225. In return, Barcelona would get a second new model, this one to replace production of the Pathfinder and X-83 van (marketed as the Renault Trafic, Opel Vivaro and Nissan Primastar), slated to end in 2014.

Union sources acknowledged at the time that once production of the Pathfinder and X-83 van ends, Barcelona would have an excess of 750 workers unless a new model were brought into the plant.

Two weeks past Nissan’s deadline for designating a plant for the new model, Barcelona’s unions agreed to the 2-tier wage proposal that pays new hires 20% less than current workers and increases annual work days to 226. The pact ensures any future job cuts at the plant would be made first to the lower-tier positions, preserving work for the higher-paid employees.

But Frank Torres, general manager of Nissan Spain, says the deal may be too late for the plant to win the proposed second model, which Nissan in Japan now says will go to either its Sunderland, U.K., facility or a factory in Turkey.

Torres, together with John Martin, Nissan Motor Europe vice president-production, now is trying to convince the parent company to reconsider Barcelona as the production site for the vehicle. Analysts say to expect a strong reaction from the unions if the plant doesn’t win the work.