Three hundred Mercedes-Benz workers to go on collective vacations

By Redação AutoIndústria | 3/21/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch

One more vehicle manufacturer decided to reduce production and put workers on collective vacations to face components shortage and low demand. Mercedes-Benz informed São Bernardo do Campo’s Metalworkers Union that 300 of its six thousand production employees will stop working from April 3 through May 2.

The union informed in a note that the measure is due to the “production reduction caused by the lack of financing, consumption fall and high interest rates”. According to Aroaldo Oliveira da Silva, the union’s executive director, the change of the environmental legislation from P7 to P8 also impacted the sector with anticipation of purchases last year and higher costs this year.

“We had macro-economical problems, especially about truck financing, because it is needed to improve the credit lines to adapt to the Euro 6 vehicles. We have problems with high interest rates: the financing capital price is much higher”, he said. “There is also a general fall in Brazilian families’ consumption, and it affects the retail sector, an important part of the transport segment in Brazil”.

Mercedes-Benz confirms collective vacations in some areas of its production lines. “The need to adjust the production program results from the global and national automotive industry’s lack of components and the adjust of sales volume in the commercial vehicle market.”