Satisfaction of the Mercedes unions after the staff’s approval of the preliminary agreement

Euskaraz irakurri: Mercedeseko sindikatuak pozik adostutako testuari langileek emandako babesagatik

Both the trade union majority –UGT, CCOO, Ekintza and PIM– who signed the preliminary agreement with the management of Mercedes Vitoria to extend the new agreement, as did the three unions that rejected it -ELA, LAB and ESK– have their . shown satisfaction for the staff’s support of the agreed text.

57% of the workforce, mainly 2,601 workers, voted in favor of this new agreement in the referendum held until the early hours yesterday, Monday, while 1,939, 43%, voted ‘no’, with a participation that has 94% exceeded.

After hearing these results, the unions that voted in favor emphasized: interest that this Agreement is not limited to the more than 5000 workers of this company, the largest in Euskadi, but for the other 30,000 indirect jobs to keep.

DC. OO. has qualified as “historic decision” the approval of the preliminary agreement. “It was essential for the future of the factory as it will involve the largest investment in its history and above all improve the conditions of the workers,” he explained in a statement.

And it is that the ‘yes’ to the new agreement was essential for the management of this multinationalwho assured that if it went through, a investment of 1.2 billion at the Vitoria plant, which will modernize it and double its production capacity, in addition to adapting it to the production of the new electric models.

After also congratulating himself on the “very high participation of the staff” CC. OO. It also underlines that 57% of the workforce has expressed their support for the agreement “in a context that has been tainted by other trade union organizations that have vilified the agreement, the well-being of the workforce and the factory’s future.”

It now remains to be seen whether ELA, LAB and ESK maintain the requested mobilizations for the next three days of this week, from Wednesday to Friday, in view of the outcome of the consultations.

However, the representative of LABORATORYMikel Díaz de Alda, already has a positive feedback once you know the result.

In statements to Radio Euskadi, he said that the three unions that rejected the agreement because the pay increases were not linked to the CPI, “Happy” by the mobilizations of the staff in recent weeks they have managed to stop production during 9 days of strike.

“The staff have shown that they have fought and want to fight for decent working conditions and that this is the way to achieve better working conditions in the next appointments,” said the LAB representative in Mercedes.

THE A in a statement expressed satisfaction at “having reached this point in a better situation than the company and its allies would have liked”, but has refused, among other things, that the board of directors also participated in the referendum or that “the entire staff has voted on conditions affecting only a part of the staff”.

He also has the “fear speech” employed by the company and “direct pressure from the Basque government on the workers” so that they submissively accept a message that is incorrect: companies’ decisions to invest do not depend on accepting cutbacks or attacks on staff mediation”.

Despite this, the union took it positively that the workforce “has resisted those who tried to impose an inhumane labor system” and that during the fight they “talked naturally about issues that had hitherto been almost taboo, such as flexibility and non-consolidable raises.” “. Likewise, he congratulated the workers who voted against, because “the result represents what has been said in recent weeks: that it is not enough to have eliminated the sixth night, that the agreed increase is not enough.”

The entity explained that “these have been very intense days of a lot of work and organization, which… regardless of the outcome of the search, they have been worth it“.