If nothing stops it, on July 1, a termination Employment Regulation File will be activated for 190 workers of Marie Claire, the hosiery company located in Vilafranca, in Els Ports, which acts as the economic support of the entire region. Or in the worst case, total closure.
Due to this situation, there are many employees who are considering these days whether to pack their bags and move to another location before the future of the company. 300 employees currently work at the firm, 214 from this plant, and there are many who consider leaving. “That’s the real drama, having to leave,” explains Cristóbal Monfort, president of the Marie Claire works council.
On Monday there was a meeting that concluded at the last minute without progress in the feasibility plan proposed by the unions. According to them, the company does not see it as viable and the termination ERE is being considered for all the workers and the liquidation on June 30 as no investment has arrived.
One of the proposals put forward by the company was to continue working with less infrastructure and also a reduced salary load, but in this scenario it also contemplated the entry of an investor interested in supporting the project to relaunch the brand. The company spoke, in a statement issued on May 30, of trying to “find a solution to the liabilities accumulated over the last decade.” It doesn’t seem to have found it.
The company’s financial difficulties have led it over the years to request support from the IVF, whose funds paid the firm’s outstanding debts. These days from the IVF they confirm that they will hold an “informative meeting” with the works council to explain the role that the entity had, “how we have helped the company”.
However, in the squad they are aware of the difficulties that have occurred, but what weighs them down the most is leaving, “when the people here have fought so much, even when they had to lower their wages, they lowered it,” Monfort explains. He acknowledges that he is one of those contemplating the move, in this case to Castelló, since both he and his wife work in the company. They have two minor children and at 49 he is not very optimistic, but he is brave and daring. “Actually I’m just pragmatic,” he explains why, deep down, everyone feels “forsaken by God. And on top of that, Marie Claire has an added value that is going to be lost, ”he reflects.
And it is that in addition to resignation, the president of the works council points out that there is concern and concern among the staff and, “rage, a lot”. The average age is 55 years, so these days they analyze in the committee meetings the economic and labor situation in which the person who leaves and also who stays will be, in case it happens.
Today there will be a new meeting “in case things get more complicated”, such as if there were defaults, although at the moment the company has no debts with the employees, confirms Monfort. The May payrolls were collected and until July 12, approximately, they have margin to pay those of the current month of June.
In recent days, the management continues to work to maintain the activity. This, Monfort assures, has distracted them in recent days from the “real blow” that the company’s closure entails. “That’s why I say we have anger, but not surprise because we already knew what was going on for a long time: it was ‘fright or death’ at any moment,” says Monfort.
Despite intuiting the end, on June 9 they called a demonstration to request an industrial plan for the region. Some 2,000 people participated. “They told us that there was no one on the balconies, but it is that all of us were on the street,” says Monfort. Some 7,000 people live in Els Ports.
