Unai Sordo (CCOO): "Seat is a product that it is worth continuing to claim"

MadridThe academic year has begun with alarms ringing in the unions, but also in the public administration, after the Volkswagen group put the Seat brand in play, which has placed the Martorell factory in the crosshairs. "Martorell will not disappear," stated the secretary general of CCOO, Unai Sordo, this Monday morning during an intervention at the Ateneo de Madrid. The message seeks to provide reassurance, especially to the employees, and the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, also joined in this Monday. In fact, they have all rushed to defend the Seat brand: "It is historic," Sordo affirmed. "It is a product that must continue to be championed," he reiterated.

However, a decision that implies the farewell of this label would not be "harmless" for the Catalan factory, the same Sordo anticipated. "Every Seat will not be a Cupra," lamented the union leader. The secretary general of CCOO said that from the union they do not understand or share the decision of the German multinational, although in recent times they suspected it could be considered. "They [the Volkswagen group] have made erroneous strategic decisions that have not yielded results," he reflected.

The Martorell plant employs about 15,000 people. The disappearance of Seat would not affect the factory, according to the company, but it is true that the space would need to be provided with new models.

In parallel, the message from the Spanish and Catalan governments is that they will do the impossible to avoid a scenario that revives the trauma of the closure of Nissan in the Zona Franca. Thus, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has committed to doing "everything possible" for the maintenance of jobs in Catalonia. In an interview this Monday on 3Cat reported by Europa Press, Illa said that the priority is to maintain the productive and design capacity of the Martorell plant in Catalonia, maintain the jobs, and, finally, the Seat brand.

Also, the First Vice President of the Spanish government, Carlos Cuerpo, stated this Monday that the executive will make "every necessary effort" to maintain the "brand and stamp" of Seat. "What Volkswagen is saying is that its most efficient factories are the Spanish ones, and that is a guarantee element so that this activity and employment can be maintained in our country," he noted at a breakfast with RTVE and EFE in Madrid.

Illa recalled that the multinational, and specifically the Martorell factory, has received a good part of the European Next Generation EU funds from the PERTE for the electric vehicle. "The first electric car designed and manufactured entirely in a factory in Europe is made at the Martorell plant," he recalled, and noted that it is a key element of the Catalan economy.

Other topics

The industrial and automotive topic, however, is just one of the Pandora's boxes that unions plan to open this academic year. In labor matters, for example, the focus is already on an increase in the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) in 2027, coinciding with the electoral period, and after the Spanish government has ruled out an increase for this 2026.

Sordo has pointed out that unions will defend an "offensive" increase and has hinted that the proposal will be above 5%. "The 2027 increase must maintain 60% of the average net salary in Spain, and prices will rise above 4% or 5%. It does not mean that everything is rising like that, but taking that into account, the SMI must be above these levels [...]. I don't want to give a figure, but we will be ambitious", he revealed.

Unions point to an autumn in which prices will be strained by energy, while they continue to denounce the impact of rents –especially in large cities– on the cost of living and the loss of purchasing power.

It is planned that CCOO and UGT will make a joint proposal. However, they will not sign an agreement if the Spanish government does not first fulfill the commitment to shield salary supplements against SMI increases. Unions and the Ministry of Labor signed it at the beginning of 2026, but it has not yet been approved. "President [Pedro Sánchez] signed it", Sordo recalled. "If it is not fulfilled, we will not close short-term agreements", he warned. Among the unions, there is also unrest due to the delay in the approval of the time registration.