Tuesday, May 15, 2007

SPANISH AUTO WORKERS TAKE TO THE ROAD


Workers from Delphi's autoparts factory in Puerto Real, Southern Spain, have launched a one-week march to protest plans to shut the factory and dismiss over 3,000 workers. Yesterday they started the second phase of the long march to company offices in Seville.

CGT trade union representative,Ididro Jiménez, described the announcement on the 22nd February by the US multinational, Delphi, of their decision to close the factory on the grounds that it was making an operational loss, as an act of "industrial terrorism," because their intention was to transfer production "to countries like Morocco, where human rights are systematically abused, and where everything costs less."

Last month tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of workers in the Spanish province of Cadiz joined a general strike to support employees of Delphi.

The plan to close the plant was a tremendous blow to the 1,600 workers directly employed there, and the 2,500 others that work at auxiliary plants.

Delphi has been under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since October 2005. Several investor groups have banded together to invest in a reorganized Delphi, but their support depends on reaching cost-cutting pacts with Delphi's unions and former parent General Motors Corp, which remains Delphi's biggest customer.

The following is from Typically Spanish.

Delphi workers continue with their protest march to Seville

Workers from the Delphi car parts factory in Puerto Real, near Cádiz, started the second leg of their protest march to Seville on Tuesday, on a journey which began on Monday and which they expect to take six days to complete.

They are expected to reach the offices of the Junta de Andalucía in Seville on Saturday after covering a distance of 119 kms.

The 150 workers spent Monday night in a sports stadium in Jerez de la Frontera, and set off again at 9 the next morning. They covered 25 kms on their first day and say that spirits are high and no-one has dropped out so far.

The march is part of their campaign of protests against plans to close the plant, which would mean the loss of more than 1,600 direct jobs.

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