ArcelorMittal finally closed yesterday an agreement with the UGT, CC OO and USO for the application of an ERTE –temporary employment regulation file– until December 31. A measure that also affects the plants that the Anglo-Indian multinational has in Olaberria and Bergara. ELA rejects this pact considering that there is no justification, since it recalls that the company obtained more than 12,000 million profit last year.
The ERTE will not have an effect on any facility that has 100% production capacity, as reported yesterday by UGT FICA in a press release. In the rest, it will be applied to the templates of each factory depending on the drop in production. Thus, for Asturias, a 25% maximum application is contemplated; for Sagunto 40%; in Etxebarri, 20%; in Lesaka, 60% and in Largos de Olaberria and Bergara, 20%. For the personnel of the transversal services, the condition would be at most the percentage of the plant to which they belong.
Company and unions have agreed that the salary percentage is 90% of the annual gross salary and 100% for extra payments and vacations.
ELA censored the application of this ERTE, which is added, it said, to those that have been applied since 2009 practically without interruption. The central led by Mitxel Lakuntza fears that this measure could last beyond three months, while recalling that the company continues without paying the amounts owed to workers since the ERTE of 2020, which was declared null, he points out, thanks to the ALS claim. In addition, he asks the Basque and Navarre Governments for “a much more active position.”