The Government does not guarantee to be able to maintain all the jobs in the Alcoa plants - La Provincia

The Government has committed to"to work"for what"all those affected"Due to the closing process of the Alcoa plants in Avilés and A Coruña they can be relocated at the end of the period marked in the pre-agreement reached 'in extremis' between the company and the unions to find a solution for the two factories, which expires onnext June 30, but it has not guaranteed, as the representatives of the workers wished, the maintenance of 100% of the jobs from that date.

In a press conference that started more than an hour and a half late with regard to its call, the Secretary of State for Employment,Yolanda Valdeolivas, indicated that this commitment of guarantees"is not part of the pre-agreement"and that both the Government and the rest of the administrations can only assume the responsibility of working to "relocate all the troops that are in danger".

The pre-agreement offers a solution forabout 355employees of the two plants, a little more than 50% of the 623 indefinite workers of the staff, and the commitment of Alcoa to assume the cost of rebooting the vats for a maximum of 40 million euros (20 million per plant) if it is specified an offer of purchase by some investor before next June 30.

Valdeolivas stressed that this request for guarantees to maintain 100% of employment by trade unions is "an alien annex that does not formpart of the agreementthat is going to submit to the parties. "

"We are going to work for the relocation of all the workers, but it is not a commitment that can be openly written in those terms." The commitment is our effort to find the best solution, but the resultsthey do not depend on the Government. We have six months that give us a time to look for definitive solutions, "he added.

Thus, the pre-agreement covers during these six months the rest of theMore than 260 workersthat do not fall within that solution proposed by the company, which during that period will be in a process of professional training, financed by the company and, if they can not be relocated, "will come out with a significant improvement in their employability", said Secretary of State for Employment.

A "very positive" agreement

For his part, the Secretary General of Industry,Raül Blanco,rated "very positively"the pre-agreement reached at the last minute of the dawn between the company and the workers and considered that "it was unthinkable a few weeks ago and greatly improves the situation that was had".

Blanco indicated that the guarantees of success in this type of process are always greater, having an agreement between the parties that if it is not had and pointed out that the objective of theGovernment is to put all resources possibleto minimize the "maximum" impact of a possible final closure of the plants.

In addition, he assessed the existence of an investment commitment by the company, which"It will help a lot", and stressed that it will also make the scenario much easier to find a new investor for the plants.

The unions lament the lack of "a more forceful message"

Meanwhile, the unions also valued "positively" the pre-agreement with the company,"inside the abyss in which it was", and showed their willingness to defend it to be ratified by the plant workers, since it means "buying time" to look for investors and for the creation by the Government of the Statute for the Electrointensives.

However, they regretted that there was no"more forceful message"by the Government and the possibility of social plans has already been put on the table in the event that no definitive solution has been found on July 1, said the president of the Alcoa works council in Aviles, José Manuel Gómez de la Uz.

"The Government has told us that it will be behind us, that it will support, but we do not have a tangible commitment from the Government to certify that they cancontinue workingall workers as of July 1. You can be with a much stronger message and we'll wait to see what they say, "he added.

For its part, the person responsible forIndustrial Policy of CC.OO, José Manuel Casado López, also considered"positive"the agreement and assured that there is the commitment of the Government to try to reduce "in half the time" the period set to approve a Statute for the Electrointensive Industry, which saw the light last December in a royal decreeGovernment lawand it is estimated that it is underway in six months.

"What would work for Alcoa and all the electrointensives in this country that are in the same situation," he added.