Siemens Gamesa trade unions express fear of losing thousands of jobs
- That fear has not yet arisen. The multinational itself announced in October the abolition of 450 jobs in Spanish state offices.
Siemens Gamesa has about 5,000 workers in Spain, of which 1,800 in Navarre and 1,000 in Zamudio (Bizkaia). UGT and CCOO note in Pamplona on Thursday that redundancies of workers in the state can start next month and that in total 5,000 jobs can be lost. ELA has also made such warnings, especially as the company has suspended 150 outsourced jobs in recent weeks.
The situation is not new. Since Siemens conquered Gamesa in 2017, the company also closed the Aoiz wind shovels factory, leaving dozens of workers in the street. The company is suffering significant losses in recent years and this year it is planning losses of EUR 4.5 billion.
The European problem
But it's not just Siemens Gamesa, but the whole wind energy sector is dancing in recent years, especially in Europe. The imbalance between production and consumption, the growing competition of Chinese producers and the crisis in windmill materials are some of the problems. In the more or less Western countries of Europe, 20% of the energy consumed is electricity, the remaining 80% is to be phased in, but the system is not yet ready.
As regards electricity consumption, Europe has stagnated in recent years, but renewable production has increased considerably. Spain, for example, fell by 12% between 2008 and 2021. Consequently, there is a paradoxical situation, the EU wants to reach a power of 420 GW in wind installations built by 2030, but the wind industry cannot guarantee that goal or does not want to take the level of risk that the situation requires.
Basically, there is a lot of production and insufficient consumption, and the investments that, from a financial point of view, demand millions of euros are not profitable for companies, without taking a high risk. Companies therefore want the public sector to take these initial risks. A wind bubble has been created and the EU has now drawn up a rescue plan for the sector to be announced on 24 October.
At the same time, while wind power in Europe cannot meet its demands due to lack of materials, Chinese companies are meeting these needs at a lower price than European. In this context, job losses are taking place at Siemens Gamesa and throughout the sector.
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