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Nissan workers burn tyres at gate of Barcelona factory after closure announced

There will be 3,000 job losses with 20,000 families expected to be affected in Spain’s Catalonia region.

featureimage Smoke rises over the Nissan factory as workers burn tyres during a protest in Barcelona Emilio Morenatti Emilio Morenatti

WORKERS HAVE BURNT tyres at the gates of the Nissan carmaking plant in northeastern Spain and are preparing for more protests after the Japanese company said it would shut all its manufacturing in the region as it reshuffles its global business.

The decision will lead to 3,000 direct job cuts, which unions say will cause economic ripple effects and impact some 20,000 families in the Catalonia region.

They see it as a sign of more widespread job losses to come and the growing pressure on governments struggling to contain the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although Nissan had been mulling for months to scale down its production in Europe and other parts of the world, the company is suffering like many other carmakers from a plunge in demand for vehicles.

Reporting a $6.2 billion loss for the fiscal year ending in March, the Japanese giant marked today its first annual loss in 11 years.

Politicians around the world are debating whether and how to bail out a car industry that already won billions in government support a decade ago after the 2008 financial crisis.

Even before the pandemic, the industry was facing major new costs and disruption as companies rushed to develop cleaner cars and raced to roll out innovations like autonomous vehicles. 

embedded253907409 Nissan workers burn tyres Emilio Morenatti Emilio Morenatti

Criticism

The Spanish government today criticised Nissan’s move, arguing it would be cheaper for the carmaker to invest in improving its productivity in the region rather than take on the €1 billion cost of the closure.

“We lament this news,” economy minister Nadia Calvino told Spain’s public broadcaster, TVE, adding that the government was seeking more negotiations to “see how to channel this process of find alternative solutions”.

“We think this is a plant that has a strategic value for Nissan,” said Calvino.

Nissan plans to phase out some 3,000 direct jobs by the end of the year, said Juan Carlos Vicente, head of the workers’ committee in Nissan’s main factory in the region after a meeting with company executives.

“They are letting us die,” Vicente told hundreds of colleagues who gathered outside the factory.

He said Nissan had argued that the business was not competitive even if it added a vehicle to its production line, which currently churns out an electric van and a pick-up van.

embedded253907628 Nissan workers march during a protest Emilio Morenatti Emilio Morenatti

The plant has been operating well under its maximum capacity for months and workers have been striking since the first rumours of the closure emerged on 4 May.

“We are going to keep our fight, putting in check governments and asking them to support us in reverting this decision,” Vicente told to a crowd that quickly moved to set fire to a pile of tyres.

Reeling from a scandal involving its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, Yokohama-based Nissan is undergoing a deep restructuring, focusing on China, North America and Japan.

The company is leaving the European market, Russia, South America and North Africa to its French partner Renault; and Southeast Asia and Oceania to Mitsubishi.

Management at Renault was also meeting today with unions about its €2 billion cost-cutting plan.

The plan had been under discussion since before the virus crisis, but the lockdown and looming recession are darkening the company’s outlook.

Unions fear it could lead to thousands of job cuts and factory closures.

Renault is expected to announce the plan tomorrow.

In Spain, a key question is whether Nissan will need to pay back the subsidies it has received from the government for furloughing workers during the pandemic.

The temporary lay-offs were granted under the condition that companies would re-hire the staff after the outbreak, and keep them for at least six months.

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    Mute Ciaran Farrelly
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    May 28th 2020, 2:20 PM

    Could they not find some other way to protest rather than releasing all those toxins into the atmosphere? FFS!!!

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    May 28th 2020, 2:46 PM

    Yes, of all things, why burn tyres? That’s like tear-gassing your own area, only filthier.

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    Mute Jen
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    May 28th 2020, 3:04 PM

    @Ciaran Farrelly: yup, feeling slightly less sorry for them after that move.

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    Mute Peter
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    May 28th 2020, 3:56 PM

    @Ciaran Farrelly:

    And after all the clean air we’ve gained with lockdowns

    41
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    Mute Wayne Scales
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    May 28th 2020, 2:03 PM

    That’s Messi.

    142
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    Mute John Hoare
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    May 28th 2020, 2:26 PM

    COVID 19 is great for long term labour costs of multinationals

    93
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    Mute Oracle Steve
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    May 28th 2020, 2:55 PM

    @John Hoare: your value to an employer is controlled by the employee. Develop a skill that people are willing to pay more for and you’ll not only earn more, you’ll be less vulnerable to companies looking for cheaper labour

    77
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    Mute Carlin Ite
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    May 28th 2020, 3:14 PM

    @Oracle Steve: that sounds like a pr statement from IBEC

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    Mute Feardorcha Ó Maolomhnaigh
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    May 28th 2020, 3:24 PM

    @Carlin Ite:
    He is right to some extent though.

    Low cost labour markets up-skill to take jobs from higher cost markets. The only option for the higher cost markets is to up-skill themselves

    There is a reason we don’t have t-shirt manufacturing plants in Ireland but we do have computer chip manufacturing.

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    Mute David Bourke
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    May 28th 2020, 3:28 PM

    @Oracle Steve:

    That’s true… until your useful skill becomes devalued over time. Forklift drivers used to make mad cash.

    Here’s a great stat, 50% of software developers have been in the industry for less than 5 years. The median age of a software developer is 27. Anyone getting into software today has basically missed the train. When the market is saturated with developers, and you’re in your mid 40s with a family, will you be able to retrain?

    Nobody can truly predict what a safe career will be, everyone’s into “personal responsibility” until it’s them who gets laid off.

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    Mute Ted Logan
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    May 28th 2020, 3:53 PM

    @David Bourke: safe career – Undertaker or Taxman.

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    Mute DJ François
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    May 28th 2020, 5:34 PM

    @David Bourke: Depends on your software skills, full stack engineers are in big demand in Ireland.

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    Mute David Bourke
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    May 29th 2020, 7:11 PM

    @DJ François:

    The point ——->
    yout head

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    Mute Derek Durkin
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    May 28th 2020, 3:44 PM

    No mention of them moving the production to England…would go against the aul anti Brexit narrative

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    Mute Aidan
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    May 28th 2020, 5:44 PM

    @Derek Durkin: post Brexit they’ll get away with paying low wages and contracts without benefits.

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    Mute Harry Stotle
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    May 28th 2020, 5:49 PM

    @Derek Durkin: Funny that! We were told that Brexit would result in Nissan relocating it’s Sunderland production to the EU. Instead it has relocated EU production to Sunderland. Also, the FT has reported that Renault will relocate production of the Captur and Kadjar models from Spain to the UK. We will know for sure tomorrow. Also rumours about PSA and UK.
    I guess Bojo was not the only one telling porkies.

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    Mute Derek Durkin
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    May 28th 2020, 6:19 PM

    @Harry Stotle: when the media tell you one thing and make a big agenda out of it then it is almost always the opposite.

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    Mute Lien Lynch
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    May 28th 2020, 2:41 PM

    They must have been sick and tyred

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    Mute Wadi
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    May 28th 2020, 3:09 PM

    @Lien Lynch: I see what you did there :)

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    Mute Diogenes Cat
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    May 28th 2020, 2:28 PM

    I wonder has this anything to do with the political uncertainty due to the Catalan separatist movement.

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    Mute Daniel Roche
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    May 28th 2020, 8:12 PM

    @Diogenes Cat: no

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    Mute Aunties
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    May 28th 2020, 3:49 PM

    Good to see protest ! If that was in Ireland we’d be all moaning on the barstool …, ehhhm wait …. on our patios

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    Mute Fabio Dillon
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    May 28th 2020, 4:13 PM

    @Aunties: destruction is not a protest.

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    Mute Marcus Suridius
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    May 28th 2020, 4:17 PM

    @Aunties: were you on the moon for the water protests?

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    Mute John Moylan
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    May 29th 2020, 10:12 PM

    @Fabio Dillon: never been to France then ?

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    Mute Agenda21
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    May 28th 2020, 4:19 PM

    When people are pushed too far they do things that are rarely normal or law abiding in their oppressors eyes whether vandalism or violently raging against the machine

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    Mute Liberty Peacock
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    May 28th 2020, 5:00 PM

    I felt sorry for them losing their jobs, a tragic result of this disastrous lockdown policy. But burning ties was a very irresponsible move. Reflects poorly on them, and It is hard to be sympathetic towards them for such a disgusting action.

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    Mute THE BIRD
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    May 28th 2020, 7:21 PM

    Greta wont be happy

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    Mute Mick Hannigan
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    May 28th 2020, 5:35 PM

    Governments need to stop bailing out business for billions, that’s crazy, would be far cheaper to pay the people effected a basis wage for a reasonable amount of time for them to get a job, or something like that

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    Mute Ann Redmond
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    May 28th 2020, 9:18 PM

    This is what happens when you vote for Green Party policies and it will get worse.

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