The Seat Workers' Committee considered that employment is "guaranteed until 2030" and is "more tranquil about the company's future", which employs more than 13,000 workers. The message was conveyed to the EFE news agency by the president of the Workers' Committee, Matías Carnero (UGT), who participated in Thursday's Supervisory Board meeting, in which the restructuring plan designed by Volkswagen's management to transform the group and improve efficiency and competitiveness was approved.
After German media reported that Volkswagen intended to eliminate the Seat brand, at the latest, by the end of 2029, the brand clarified that no decision has been made and that the supervisory board did not mention Seat among the adopted agreements. Carnero explained that, at that meeting, he demanded "a plan for Seat" and that Volkswagen's management is betting on both Cupra and Seat, highlighting that the Seat brand and Seat S.A. are different things.
In a statement released on Friday, Seat and the Volkswagen Group stated that Seat S.A. has a "solid future" within the German consortium, but did not exclude the possibility of dispensing with the Seat brand, although they insist that the decision has not yet been made. The company stressed that, "in the current context, with increasingly demanding regulations, the cost of electrification and the investment needed to develop a new generation of electric models are making the analysis of continued investment in the Seat brand increasingly complex".
At Thursday's meeting, Volkswagen's Supervisory Board unanimously approved a restructuring plan that envisages the elimination of approximately 50,000 jobs worldwide by the end of the decade, double what was planned in a previous plan. A total cut of 100,000 jobs would represent approximately 15% of the group's workforce. Carnero recalled that Seat has already cut staff in recent years and insists on the need for an electric platform for the Martorell factory in Spain in order to guarantee workload in the medium term.
