Workers at the General Motors subcontractor, Delphi, in Puerto Real have gone on strike in protest at the planned closure of the factory.
A march last Thursday was attended by over 80000 people. The 1600 workers are being represented by the UGT (general workers union) and the workers' commission. They have complained that as the owners are in America negotiations are difficult. However the owners must care about their assets in Spain and the workers control those, with total closure planned it is unlikely that even (soon to be former) management would stand in their way.
The CGT, the UGT and the commission called for a one-day general strike in the region on Wednesday. There are some 800,000 workers in the region and the unions reported very high observance of the strike. Along with the loss of 1600 jobs at the factory a further 4000 jobs with other companies will be lost if the factory closes.
The factory is closing, despite accepting over 60M euros in state subsidies, this is a breach of Spanish law but the company has been allowed to file for bankruptcy nonetheless. The owners are promising 50M euros in redundacy payments, this gives an average payment of over 30000 euros which, frankly, seems unlikely. The owners are planning to move production to Poland, to take advantage of lower labour costs.
Comments