The collective dispute at the former Domiberia factory in Ugao (Bilbao) enters a new stage after ending the strike this week. The management has equalized the exit conditions of the fifty or so workers affected by the ERE, but this will be challenged by the unions in court.
The case also affects the Catalan work center in Montmeló, so the National Court will be the competent court to decide whether or not to annul the collective dismissal. In the first case, the new owners of the company dedicated to the manufacture of tinplate containers (Domiberia was the heir of the former Crown) would be obliged to reinstate the dismissed workers. Union sources explain that they are confident that the AN’s decision will be known within a few months.
Grupo Envases is the current owner of the company, as it took over the Domiberia plants, whose headquarters in Spain are located in Agoncillo, La Rioja, in the middle of last year, and the Mexican company’s plans include this collective layoff, which will be a setback for its work center in Euskadi. The Ugao factory has just over one hundred workers and the committee fears that the lay-off is a preliminary step towards the definitive closure of the plant in order to relocate the activity.
Envases Europe assured that it wanted to expand the business when it announced the purchase of Domiberia, which already placed the perimeter of the Mexican giant in Europe at more than 20 production centers (Domiberia contributed seven of them, six in Spain) and 3,000 workers. Domiberia was the second largest Spanish manufacturer of metal packaging, with its production mainly in the food and industrial sectors.
