The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, announced this Saturday the improvement of the pre-agreement reached to make the biscuit company Siro viable and prevent the loss of more than 1,700 jobs in its four factories located in the provinces of Palencia and Zamora.
Maroto, who has attended the assembly of the nearly 300 workers of the Toro plant (Zamora) in which the pre-agreement must be ratified, has asked the staff to trust in the future plan of the factory because the plants ” today they are bankrupt” and “there is no second way”.
“We are talking about talking about the future or closing the companies,” warned the minister, who recalled that if it is not for that plan, the company will go bankrupt on June 19 after Siro lost 47 million euros last year. euros.
For this reason, it needs “in the short term to enable 130 million euros”, of which 80 will be to pay suppliers and 50 million for treasury and payroll. To do this, the Ministry has mediated between the banking alliance of company debtors so that they assume part of the losses based on their exposure to the company and has sought an external investor who has contributed 100 million euros.
In addition, the initial viability plan, which the workers did not accept, was improved last Friday morning in a negotiation at the Ministry and in the last hours it has included new improvements for the workforce. The minister explained that these better conditions include the recovery of purchasing power by 8% after the four years of salary containment established by the viability plan and better conditions in incentivized dismissals, which can come in especially handy for employees who have almost forty years in the company and thus they can have “a dignified exit”.
The improvement of the industrial plan and the arrival of the investor will guarantee the industrial viability and an investment plan in the plants. In the case of one of the two Venta de Baños plants, which was initially planned to close, they have “gained two years” in which it will remain open so that from then on, or else it will continue because “things are going well ” or a new investor is found to keep it open.
Maroto has highlighted the importance of the reindustrialization of rural areas, since the four Siro plants in Spain are located in the towns of Venta de Baños and Aguilar de Campóo in Palencia and in Toro, Zamora.
The minister has warned that if the project for the future of the company does not go ahead, it is “at the gates of a contest” of creditors, something that must be avoided and for which the investment effort is “very important”. “The situation of the company is critical and it needs to have benefits to start working and recover the collective agreement”, explained Maroto. For this reason, she has maintained that the workers “today have to have the politicians close” and thanks to the fact that they have fulfilled their “responsibility” in the negotiations, Siro can have a future.
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