This is a decisive week that begins in the negotiation process that opens at the Thyssenkrupp Galmed plant in Sagunt. As confirmed by the CCOO-PV union, with representation at the plant, on Tuesday the union has two meetings planned, and one of them is with the management of the company to learn about the situation first-hand, after the statement sent last Thursday by the CEO of the company, Tiago Vieira, the workers fell like a jug of cold water on the group.
The week will also be important because the dialogue with the Valencian Government begins, since its own sources confirm that they will meet with the Department of Industry, headed by Nuria Montes, although they remember that the meeting does not yet have a closed date. There will be more issues on the table, in addition to the closure of Thyssenkrupp, since at stake is the reindustrialization of the region, an aspect that CCOO-PV already highlighted last week.
For this reason, the meeting held by the union with all the parliamentary groups represented in the Sagunt City Council will also be key, where the plant is located, which now, as it did in 2013, threatens closure. Compromís per Sagunt has already positioned itself showing its solidarity with the staff of the German factory. “We will do everything possible to avoid the closure of this very important facility in the municipality,” said the Valencian team on social networks.
“Our first intention is to fight.” This is how Sergio Villalba, the general secretary of CCOO-PV, expressed himself this past week in Camp de Morvedre and Alto Palancia when he learned of the company’s intentions. The union pointed out that the announcement of the closure came “without notice or reasons that really serve to objectively justify the decision to close the Sagunt factory” and recalled that it had already reopened in 2016. “The closure announcement is the currency with which The multinational pays the staff for their dedication and sacrifice during these years,” the union added.
The group announced the closure of the plant due to “a significant worsening of the European automobile market”, well below the original expectations and forecasts on which the “Business Segment” strategy was based, which leads to a reduction in demand prospects. galvanized.
In response, the union assures that this disinvestment in the facilities will have a negative impact on employment – there are 120 workers and another 160 indirect jobs affected -, “not only in its own personnel and subcontractors, but also in employment in companies that develop its activity abroad, such as auxiliary and transport companies, located both in the Camp de Morvedre region itself and in the rest of the Valencian Community, as well as inside the Puerto Sagunto steel complex”.
