- At the end of the year, the Aernnova management made public the list of 82 workers who will stay on the street from 1 February. This Thursday, the workers carried out the first of the nine strike days convened during the month of January.
Finally, on February 1, 82 workers at the Aernnova plant in Berantevilla will stay on the street, about 20% of the total workforce of 450 employees: 55 redundancies, 14 early retirements, which will receive 65% of gross pay, and 13 voluntary redundancies with incentives. On 31 December 2020, New Year’s Eve Day, the management made public the list of workers who will not continue until the Labour Inspectorate and the courts issue their decision.
As it announced since the opening of the employment regulation dossier (ERE), the works council will not accept any dismissal and has decided to continue the protest dynamic in order to deal with what it has described as "abuse".
For this reason, nine strikes have been called for in January: In addition to the first unemployment on Thursday, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 25, 27 and 29 January.
This Thursday the first day of the strike dynamic has come, and during this morning’s concentration on the company, the workers have shown 82 coffins to symbolise the jobs that will be lost.
In the entrances to the industrial area and to the factory there has been a great presence of the Ertzaintza, but the mobilization has developed without incident. According to the unions, only two steering cars have entered the factory, dumped by the Ertzaintza, and 100% of the workers have joined the call. Subsequently, the mobilizations have been taken to the headquarters of the Basque Government and the Provincial Council of Álava.
They have denounced that the Department of Industry has suspended the meeting scheduled for 4 this month. In fact, he decided not to meet the workers for "inappropriate behaviour" by the works council. Finally, this meeting will be held next Wednesday at 9:00.
The LAB trade union has accused the Basque Government of "doing nothing" and of "refusing to mobilise to defend its jobs", which it has described as "miserable" because "after millions of euros in subsidies is next to a company that has to bid dozens of people off".
Complaint to the courts
For its part, the ELA trade union has reported that it has called for dismissals to be denounced and annulled in the courts because they see "sufficient grounds" for this. "There are no reasons to implement an SRE and a number of measures have been proposed that the company has rejected; we will continue to fight to turn the situation around, both in the courts and on the street," they warned.
