Unrest at VDL Nedcar just as a potential customer comes by

The morning shift of the Nedcar car factory in Born will continue on Thursday with the wildcat strike that started on Wednesday morning. The afternoon shift is not expected to resume work either. This was announced by several employees on Thursday. Around noon a potential customer would come to visit. Gordon Murray Automotive would consider starting production of large cars at Nedcar from 2026. “The question is whether they will come in,” says a spokesman for CNV Vakmensen. “The whole company is blocked.” There is a blockade with trailers, so that trucks cannot load or unload either. Since Wednesday, the number of trucks waiting in increasingly long queues around the company until they can be unloaded has been growing.

Director Ron Peters of FNV Metaal said he assumed that between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. during the visit of the potential new customer, a number of lines will run in the factory. But CNV and FNV say they have no control over the strikers, because it is a wildcat strike. VDL reacts annoyed. “A so-called wildcat strike is illegal, the unions have also asked our employees and their members to resume work,” said a spokesman for the company. The wildcat strike, not organized by trade unions, broke out after negotiations between VDL and trade unions about a new social plan failed on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the unions issued an ultimatum to the management of VDL, which expires on Friday afternoon. The unions are threatening a 48-hour strike early next week.

Gordon Murray Automotive is mainly known from extreme supercars such as the T.34, but there are plans to also develop more accessible passenger cars. GMA created its iStream base just under two years ago for this purpose. In addition to supercars, small city cars, but also family cars and commercial vehicles could be designed on it. For many employees of VDL Nedcar, it doesn’t seem to matter much anymore: “The genie is out of the bottle, people are furious,” says executive Will Kroonen of CNV Vakmensen. “We’ve already had dozens of potential customers here. People are tired of it, their faith is gone.”