The workers of the factory of the Cerealto Siro Foods group in Toro (Zamora) have voted «no» this Tuesday to the competitiveness plan presented by the company, a proposal that the workers of the two plants that the company has in Sale of Baños (Palencia) and that, however, has had the approval of the majority of the employees of the Aguilar de Campoo facilities, also in the province of Palencia.
The future is now uncertain for the entire group, which accumulates a debt of some 300 million euros, since the plan to guarantee the viability of the biscuit firm was an essential condition for the foreign investment partner to support and provide financial breathing space to the company.
The president of the works committee of Siro en Toro, María José de la Iglesia, explained that of the 273 workers of the Zamora factory who voted in the assemblies for the viability plan proposal, 204 spoke against, 65 in favor and four voted blank.
This, despite the fact that hours before the vote the intentions of the company to close one of the Venta de Baños factories were known, something that was already being considered as a possibility and that has not affected the decision of the workers of the Toro plant, according to the president of the works council.
For the workers of the Siro factory in Toro, the viability plan would mean an average reduction of 10% of their salary and would also prevent them from gaining seniority, so it is not only what is lost now but also what it will mean as a salary cut in a future, as argued by the body representing the workers, which has admitted that the current viability plan is “less aggressive” than the one that the company’s management presented last January.
