ELA, ESK and LAB accuse Michelin Vitoria of acting out of “revenge” in the plan for 150 worker dismissals

2023-12-06 13:10:21

The ELA, LAB and ESK unions released a statement this Wednesday in which they accuse the management of the Michelin factory in Vitoria of acting out of “revenge” with its plan for 150 worker dismissals. A measure that, in the opinion of the centers, is due to the multinational’s intention to “try to correct the staff that has organized in favor of their labor rights”, by leaving the inter-center committee.

This letter comes just one day after the majority of the committee yesterday approved the management plan to adjust the workforce at the Alava plant. Five days after the company announced its proposal for incentivized leave, a mobility plan and relief contracts so that these departures are not traumatic, a tight majority of the committee – with twelve votes in favor, nine against, two abstentions and four absences – gave the green light to the company’s offer and the 2024 work calendars, which foresee the lowest workload in the last two decades. An agreement that produced a declared relief in the deputy general of Álava, Ramiro González, when he understood that it redirects a situation of conflict in the second most important industry in the territory – it gives direct employment to 3,400 workers and thousands of other indirect ones.

In the opinion of ELA, LAB and ESK, which bring together 8 of the 29 members of the committee, the company “has not put on the table a single document that argues that there are 150 people left, beyond statements. No reports of order drops, cancellations, forecasts… nothing. What’s more, with the system changes, many people will start working between 164 and 237 more hours a year,” they say in the statement.

For this reason, the three unions consider that “a drop in production is not appropriate” unless the aim is to “do the same work with fewer people.” In this sense, they have criticized the Workers’ Commissions and UGT – central groups that have endorsed the agreement – for not having doubted at any time the need for these “surpluses.” Finally, ELA, LAB and ESK anticipate that they will study measures – judicial and union – in order to “paralyze this nonsense,” they emphasize. “Recognizing now some causes that have not even been remotely justified opens the door so that in the future the company can take measures, leaving the committee defenseless,” they criticized.