
From January 20 with the shutdown of the Alcoa vats in San Cibrao, the workers, to whom the company promises that there will be no mass layoffs at least until 2026, will be trained and will do maintenance work until the restart of the activity in 2024.
From this Thursday, January 20th, Spain stops producing primary aluminum. The last plant where this material was manufactured, the one Alcoa has in San Cibrao (Cervo, Lugo), stops the electrolysis tanks. However, the production of secondary aluminum is maintained, from the re-melting process.
The measure is part of the agreement reached between the company and the workers after more than a year of conflict and frustrated sale negotiations. The workforce accepted the proposal, which represented a change in the multinational's strategy, with resignation. When they voted yes, they did so choosing between "a bad solution and a worse one", according to the works council president, José Antonio Zan.
The script twist was written at the end of November 2021. Alcoa had announced almost a year and a half earlier its intention to close the primary aluminum plant -in the same region it has another alumina plant. The talks opened with the mediation of the central government and the Xunta for the sale of the facilities to another producer failed again and again. The Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, did not hesitate to point the finger at the U.S.-based company as being responsible for the failure of the talks.
In the midst of continuous protests by the workers, the government's refusal to intervene in the plant and million-dollar claims - Alcoa was asked to return 34 million euros in subsidies that were linked to maintaining employment - the company proposed what it called a "medium-long term" solution: stop the vats - the heart of the factory - for two years and restart them in January 2024; maintain jobs and wages and not make a mass layoff at least until the end of 2025; and invest more than 60 million euros and set aside 31 million more for the restart of the activity. It did so after the Supreme Court confirmed that the employment regulation plan (ERE) it had proposed for more than 500 workers and with which it intended to stop the vats a year ago was null and void.
The workforce accepted the deal because the other option could be closure and a new ERE, but took it as "a hard blow". Zan charges against the central government and the Xunta for the lack of alternatives. He especially reproaches the former for not offering a "competitive" energy price for the two years that the plant will be shut down. With its sights set on 2024, it is negotiating electricity supply agreements with renewable energy companies such as Greenalia and Capital Energy. Since Thursday, when the vats stop working, the workers will be dedicated to maintenance work and training. Starting up again in two years' time will be a "technically difficult" process, says the works council president. "Nobody is going home; 100% of the workforce will continue working," he stresses.
This same day, the second Alcoa situation monitoring committee is meeting, with representatives from the administrations, the workers and the company. Zan trusts that the company will specify how and when the investments announced for the plant will be made. After the first meeting after the agreement with the workers, both Minister Maroto and the economic vice-president of the Xunta, Francisco Conde, once again exchanged reproaches and neither of them showed satisfaction with the solution proposed. Conde even expressed doubts about Alcoa's commitment and said that there was no reason for "celebration" since the plant is facing a temporary stoppage of activity "if the company's promises are accepted".
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