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United Caps workers in Sopela reach agreement after 65 days strike

  • The ELA union has reached an agreement with the company’s management, United Caps, in Vitoria-Gasteiz. It has thus been recognised that the transfer of the company is inappropriate and that workers will therefore receive more compensation for transfers or redundancy payments than usual.
Sopelako United Caps enpresako langileek 65 egun eman dituzte greban. (© SOPELA.NET)
Artikulu hau CC BY-SA 3.0 lizentziari esker ekarri dugu.

03 February 2021 - 16:20

The company United Caps manufactures plastic plugs at its Sopela plant, but on 20 November the company’s management announced its intention to transfer the plant to Llagostera. Consequently, the 37 workers affected by the suspension of their jobs started an indefinite strike on 24 November.

Now, after 65 days of strike, the ELA union has reached an agreement with the company’s management at the judicial headquarters. In this regard, they have recognised that the transfer is unfair and that workers will receive more allowances for transfers and dismissals than usual: an average of 100 days per year worked.

The workers got the support of the ELA union when the company expressed its intention to mobilize, as in its opinion it was not a transfer, but a "clandestine closure". That is why both the works council and the trade union have made proposals to prevent the transfer, but the multinational has not accepted them.

ELA has also criticised the passivity of the Basque institutions and accused them of leaving workers in the sector unprotected. The union has also denounced the work of the labour inspectorate, which, despite finding a violation of the right to strike, only two months after the strike committee filed the complaints, has not come to a resolution, which has led to an unnecessary prolongation of the conflict.


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