22 March, 2010
Two separate, yet distinct mill occupations by paperworkers in France and Spain in March drew attention and support for ICEM-affiliated trade unions determined to protect workers’ interests in cases of employer recalcitrance and joblessness brought on by a failed paper mill sale.
In both situations, the sit-ins proved successful. In France, in the southwestern department of Dordogne, a nine-day strike by FILPAC-CGT and 700 workers of Papeteries de Condat ended only after the union’s bargaining committee held management’s team captive inside the shut mill on day six of the strike.
That tactic at the integrated pulp and coated printing papers mill gave a satisfactory result to 2010 contract negotiations. After five years of going without a raise, management’s initial proposal of 1% was unsatisfactory. Workers of FILPAC were seeking at least a 3% increase.
The indefinite strike began on 3 March and when managers still wouldn’t budge by 8 March, the committee backed by throngs of strikers on the outside of the mill in Le Lardin St. Lazare, took matters into hand. The sequestering produced a compromise two days later, when Papeteries de Condat agreed to pay 1% retroactive to 1 January 2010, and another 1% on 1 July. Additionally, the union won full-time employment rights for ten of 24 temporary workers.
“Certainly, we did not win everything that we deserved,” said FILPAC assistant regional secretary Tahar Messaoudi. “But we are satisfied and we returned to work with our heads held high.”
Papeteries de Condat is owned by the Spanish-based Lecta Group, which itself is wholly owned by CVC Capital Partners of London. Besides the 540,000 metric tonnes per year Condat mill, Lecta runs paper operations in Spain, the Torraspapel mills, and in Italy, the Garda mills.
At the Papelera de Basaya mill in Torrelavega, Spain, 110 members of both CC.OO and UGT paper branches occupied their mill for four days from 6 March to 9 March. The issue was the Spanish chemicals company Snaice SA’s decision to back out of a deal to buy the shuttered mill in Cantabria state in north-central Spain.
Snaice had agreed to purchase the mill on 19 January, but backed out a month later when it learned the debt-load of the operation was twice what it had anticipated. The mill’s works council began the sit-in upon learning at a meeting that the previous owner was to declare insolvency. Works council members were immediately joined by 80 other workers.
The sit-in braved extremely cold weather, and was met by heralded support by citizens of Torrelavega, local politicians, and even Snaice management, which operates an adjacent pulp mill in the city. Twice each day, for two-hour periods, family members of the workers joined them in tearful displays of solidarity.
The occupation ended when the regional government of Cantabria pledged to find a buyer for the mill, with Snaice agreeing to operate it until that happens. The 80,000 metric tonnes per year mill producing uncoated printing papers had been idle since October 2009.
Joaquina Rodríguez Torrejón of CC.OO told the ICEM that 16 paper mills have been closed in Spain between 2007 and 2009. She credited the heroic actions of workers at Papelera de Basaya this month with giving this mill an opportunity to re-start.
Meanwhile in Spain, 275 paperworkers are to begin a 10-day strike today against Iberpapel at its Papelera Guipúzcoa de Zicuñaga mill in Hernani, Guipúzcoa state. The strike is over shift-work bonuses, pension entitlements, sickness and accident benefits, and new work-time rules for the summer. The pulp and paper mill produces 342,000 metric tonnes of woodfree uncoated papers from three paper machines.