Siemens Gamesa decided to close its blade repair facilities in Oliveira de Frades, in Viseu, leading to the dismissal of around 100 workers, a situation that the local mayor has already regretted.
“To ensure long-term competitiveness, Siemens Gamesa has decided to close its rotor blade and blade repair facilities in Oliveira de Frades, as there is no workload expected for the coming years,” an official Siemens Energy source told Lusa.
In the same note, the person responsible wrote that Siemens Gamesa, as a global company, operates in a “very dynamic market environment” that requires constant evaluations.
“We are constantly evaluating our manufacturing presence to remain competitive and return to profitability,” he wrote.
Regarding the dismissal notice given to around 100 workers, the person in charge said that Siemens Gamesa is “committed to minimizing the impact of such decisions on its employees”.
“Approximately half of Oliveira de Frades’ employees will receive a transfer offer within Siemens Gamesa,” he stated.
The president of the Municipal Council of Oliveira de Frades, in the district of Viseu, João Valério, told the Lusa agency that the decision “surprised him, but it was already a little announced, after the closure of the unit in Aveiro” at the beginning of the year.
In January of this year, Siemens Energy justified to the Lusa agency the collective dismissal of 222 workers from its wind blade factory in Vagos, in the district of Aveiro, with the reduction of the work plan from February.
In a written response sent to the Lusa agency, an official Siemens Energy source stated that the company “is implementing comprehensive restructuring measures with the aim of returning to profitability” and that, in this context, it will have to adapt its production capacity to the stop in sales of its 4.X and 5.X ‘onshore’ turbines (for onshore parks).
“This applies to our factory in Vagos, Portugal, where our current work plan foresees a significant reduction from February 2025. This is why we have to reduce 222 jobs from the current 1,300 jobs”, said Siemens Energy.
At the time, the multinational of German origin guaranteed that the announced restructuring would affect, in Portugal, only the Vagos factory, and would not affect the unit located in Oliveira de Frades, in the district of Viseu, both owned by its subsidiary Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Blades.
The decision to close in Oliveira de Frades was communicated to the mayor, “although they didn’t have to do it, but since they were careful, if they had done it sooner, it might have been possible to negotiate a phased dismissal” of the workers.
Even so, the mayor acknowledged that in the industrial zone “there is a lack of labor and, it seems, there are businesspeople who have already shown themselves available to accommodate some” of the approximately 100 workers who were informed of the dismissal.
The municipality, said João Valério, is also working with the Institute of Employment and Professional Training (IEFP) for “future referral of workers, together with the social action office”.
“The closure of a company is always an economic and social damage. Now it is up to us to work to continue bringing companies to Oliveira de Frades to mitigate the damage caused by this closure”, said João Valério.
Now, added the mayor, “there will be a problem, which is that unit in the industrial zone, which still has no solution” for the facilities there, without knowing whether “it will be a warehouse, another type of business or whether they will sell it”.
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