There was no agreement after more than four hours of meetings between Spanish glassworks Vidreira do Atlntico and unions in the Ourense offices of the Galician regional labour department with head of …
There was no agreement after more than four hours of meetings between Spanish glassworks Vidreira do Atlntico and unions in the Ourense offices of the Galician regional labour department with head of the department Carmen Rodriguez mediating. The aim was to bring the parties closer together and prevent the radicalization of a conflict stemming from negotiation of the contract which began in July 2008 at the company, part of Portuguese group Barbosa e Almeida, and which employs about 150. After two meetings involving both sides and others held individually, employers and unions ended the encounter by reiterating their initial positions, whilst assuring their willingness to continue talking. Nevertheless, workers ratified a strike calendar to begin on the 11 January 2009. For its part, company president Jorge Alexandre Ferreira repeated his warning before the strike that without harmony and without a new organizational structure that makes the plant more profitable, the company was doomed to closure, “sooner rather than later”, given the difficulty of the firm“s financial situation characterised by a lack of liquidity and the unwillingness of the bank to issue guarantees. Mr. Ferreira called on workers to reflect on their future. Lack of liquidity is the argument put forward by the company for having paid only half the December salary by 8 January 2009; unions maintained it was a measure to pressure workers into not striking.