The increase in production from 983 to 1,005 vehicles per day, which has been occurring for about a month, and which is currently in a testing period, has already provoked a reaction from the Workers' Committee (CT) of Autoeuropa, which, in an internal communication, defends a “reinforcement of jobs”.

“Taking into account the 'test' of increasing production to 1,005 [vehicles per day] that is underway in the assembly area, we warn that the impacts on production rates in the painting and bodywork areas must be considered with a reinforcement of jobs”, maintains the CT of the Palmela car factory, in the district of Setúbal.

In the document, to which the Lusa agency had access, Autoeuropa's CT also argues that, if daily production of 1,005 vehicles is maintained, it requires that temporary workers who, in the meantime, reinforce the production area, be hired by Autoeuropa.

The increase in daily production occurs almost simultaneously with the application of the lay-off regime to 3,742 of the company's 4,900 workers, over a period of eight days in June and 13 days in July, within the scope of a decarbonisation process and technological changes to infrastructure, which are necessary for the production of new car models.

Last year, the Volkswagen/Autoeuropa factory produced a total of 220,100 cars in 2023, 14% more than in 2022.