The Works Council and the Tubacex management met on Tuesday to discuss the new Temporary Employment Dossier (ETT) which is intended to be implemented by the latter, which is pending approval. There was great tension in the meeting. “After the unions passed on our discomfort, management members closed the folder and left without comment,” ELA’s trade union section explained in a statement.

The workers' representatives put a number of things on the table. In his view, it makes no sense for the new management dossier to make it possible to reduce working time by up to 80%, at the latest when the one in force now allows 60%, and when the company has not managed to reduce the activity so much. In fact, the regulation of the TTI plant, to which the management itself referred at the meeting, is on average 51% (in Aceralava the calculation has not yet been made).

In addition, as explained by ELA, the company had just acknowledged that a significant demand had been made by the workers. “The report of the dossier is based solely on the forecasts made by the management, they have not been concerned with collecting external opinions,” they criticised.

EUR 700,000 per month

Although they could not reach an agreement, the unions obtained significant information from the management: “We ask them again about the savings that ETT has made at the moment, and in the end they answer us: EUR 700,000 per month”.

Both sides will meet again next Thursday to continue negotiating the dossier, as reported by the Basque Department of the Interior. The ETT which is in force at the end of November is the following that the management wishes to implement next.