Employees and agents of Uribe Kosta ask for a committee to debate “what and how to produce” at Mecaner

Industrial sector workers and representatives of municipal councils, members of social groups and residents of Uribe Kosta (Bizkaia) have demanded the creation of a committee to debate ‘what and how to produce’ in Mecaner, after its closure, since ‘the machines and facilities are still in Urduliz.”

In a performance next to the factory in Urduliz, where they gathered with a banner with the motto “Mecaner Herriarentzat. For a socially and environmentally fair industry”, they conveyed these demands about the situation of the factory after September 1 last year. The multinational Stellantis, owner of Mecaner, will inform its 148 employees about the order to close this company, “historic in our region”, reports LAB.

During the protest, they recalled that during these months, Mecaner employees, with the support of various social actors in the region, institutional representatives and citizens, mobilized “for the future of Mecaner” and created “an alternative eco-social” for the company suggested. ,” sponsored by the majority of the committee.

According to him, it is “a viable alternative that would preserve jobs and open the door to a fair industrial change.” “A plan conceived as an opportunity to fight for a fairer social and environmental solution, in the face of the greed and desire for profit of a large multinational,” they have defended.

However, they regretted that “the exemplary struggle of the workers and other social actors involved has not succeeded in keeping the company open” and denounced that the Basque government “has once again abdicated its responsibility and positioned in favor of the interests of businessmen”.

Be that as it may, they have emphasized that they in turn will not “give in” since, although Mecaner is closed, “the machines and facilities are still in Urduliz” and “the alternative plan to carry out an operation project is upheld.” of ecosocial transformation and the power and desire of the people to implement a just ecosocial transition in this region”.

For all these reasons, members of the environmental movement, activists of various popular movements, industrial workers, mayors and councilors of the region, members of academia and residents of Uribe Kosta, “without giving up the opportunity to maintain Mecaner,” has transferred to the Basque government its request to create a monitoring committee to “debate and make proposals on what and how to produce in these facilities, guaranteeing the participation of citizens.”

They have also demanded that “an ecological and social approach be adopted in the development of any industrial project” on the Mecaner site and that the plan presented by the workers “would be the basis of future projects and the starting point of the industrial transformation”.

Along these lines, they have defended that, if there is another industrial project, “it should preferably be carried out with those who worked in the company, in order to regain the employment destroyed and ensure that it is high-quality employment exercised under decent conditions. .”

Recognizing that ‘the destruction of Mecaner is only the announcement that precedes the next brutal reconversion of our industrial and human landscape’, they have called on all social actors in the region to ‘form a social forum where we can, democratically and through the active participation of all, start designing a model for fair and sustainable social transformation, leaving no one behind.

That is why they convened a first meeting in Urduliz on May 28. On the other hand, they have joined the mobilization of Saturday, May 11 in Bilbao “in favor of a fair eco-social alternative.”