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15 May, 2006
A strike planned for today at two DuPont chemical plants in Spain was averted late last week when the American company significantly increased plant closing benefits.
DuPont announced in March it would close both its Catalonia plants in Rubí and Polinyá, but union members affiliated with CCOO, UGT and USOC (Workers’ Trade Union of Catalonia) voted on 8 May to take strike action due to proposed insufficient severance payments. DuPont’s European restructuring plan calls for production from the two plants to be shifted to France and Germany, and offers of jobs to Rubí and Polinyá workers there. The plan also calls for the closure of a plant in Breda, The Netherlands, and the Hellac Lab in Germany.
DuPont opened talks with the Spanish unions in April by offering to pay buy-outs of only 25 days per year of work. The strike threat found the company returning to the bargaining table and offering 59 paid days per year, six less than the unions’ original demand. Some 246 workers are affected at the two chemical plants near Barcelona.