To UPS workers all over the world: While UPS makes multimillionaire profit, they fire workers from UPS-Vallecas
¡REEMPLOY THE PEOPLE YOU HAVE FIRED! Dear colleagues, First of all, we want to inform you that on the 30 th of july UPS started to fire the employees of Vallecas (Madrid), up to now, they have dismissed up to 18 colleagues. During the last two years, the company has presented three Layoff Plans (said “ERE” in Spain, official procedure to request to the Administration the workers contract termination), in order to fire most of the employees of UPS Vallecas and to modify the working and financial conditions of the remaining ones, including to put an end to our signed up collective agreement. After much struggle, the first two Layoff Plans and their respective legal appeals were defeated by the Administrations (Ministry of Labour and Madrid Regional Authority), that denied in a categorical way the existence of any reason for the dismissals. Finally the management of UPS resolved to withdraw the third one before the Administration would deny it again. With this record, and instead of accepting and assuming the different resolutions of the Administration and going back to normalize the working relationships in Vallecas, the company has got the insolence to apply, immediately after withdrawing the third Layoff Plan, the so-called “objective dismissal” (individual dismissals, with a severance pay of 20 days per working year) to 18 employees. And they do it using the same arguments that they have been using for over two years: “the reasons of the dismissals are economic, organizational and of production”, the same reasons that have been said five times they don’t exist!, proving us right in any case to the workers that are struggling to defend our job and our working conditions. Now, leaning on the Labour reform passed by the Spanish Government that came into force on the th 18 of June, they are trying what they couldn’t get with the Layoff Plans. With this new Reform, a lot of the causes of “nullity” for the dismissals disappear (which means that if the judge finds the dismissal null and void they will have to reemploy the worker), UPS pretends that the dismissals prosper, even if they are found “unfair”, which would mean that the company would have to pay more money to the worker (up to 45 days per working year) but nothing would force them to reemploy them. In that case, UPS would have the way free to carry out the same measure to the rest of the workers that today are still in the centre of Vallecas (right now about 70 workers, versus the 200 people that worked there about two years ago). We have been fighting for over two years now defending our jobs and labour rights. The company’s management had preferred to take away our job, to have us doing almost nothing during all this time, without minding a bit about wasting money, while they burst our colleagues from other working centres working too much. Anything they need, instead of giving up and sitting down with the workers representatives (the Worker’s Committee) to settle at once this situation, taking back to Vallecas the work that they have taken away, or negotiating the transfer of all the workers to the centre of Coslada (Madrid), if what they really want is to close Vallecas. This proves what we have said many times, that here there is no lack of money or work, here the problem is that they want to end up with a model union that is uncomfortable for them to put in practice their plans, that are to replace permanent workers with rights by more and more precarious workers, that work more for less money and less rights. And they need also them to be submissive workers. This is their policy to keep on getting more and more profit! They want free hands to keep on outsourcing the work, using subcontractors instead of workers hired directly by UPS, generalizing the part time contracts, the use of Temporary Recruitment Agencies, or to be
able to freeze or directly to cut down the salaries. That is to say, they need free hands to keep on cutting out the rights of the workers. We, the employees of UPS Vallecas, are addressing to all of you to denounce this situation and to ask for YOUR SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT. We ask you to send communiqués from all the work centres of UPS, Unions and workers representatives, to the management of UPS demanding them the immediate reemployment of the dismissed colleagues and that they should respect the job and working rights of the workers of UPS Vallecas, as well as from the rest of UPS. We are carrying through a plan of action that includes, among other things, meetings with workers from other UPS centres, and our active participation in the preparation of the general strike called in the whole country for the next 29th of September. We hope to receive your supportive help, we thank you and we enclose our addresses for you to have all the needed information.
FOR THE REEMPLOYMENT OF THE DISMISSED COLLEAGUES! FOR THE DEFENSE OF OUR JOBS! OUT WITH THE LABOUR REFORM! Vallecas (Madrid) 20th of august 2010 Worker’s Committee of UPS Vallecas
COMMUNIQUÉS TO THE COMPANY’S MANAGEMENT To send communiqués demanding the reemployment of the dismissed persons: Arancha Fernández Igoa Human Resources Director afernandezigoa@ups.com Luis Arriaga General Director of UPS Spain larriaga@ups.com (Please, send a copy of the written documents to the Worker’s Committee of UPS Vallecas to the following mail: comiteupsvallekas@yahoo.es)
Workers of de UPS Vallecas: Mail: comiteupsvallekas@yahoo.es Contact phone: (34) 677 041 301 Blog: http://ereupsvallecas.blogspot.com/ Forum: http://ereups.gratisforo.net/forum.htm Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/UPS-MADRID-ABUSOS-DE-UNA-MULTINACIONAL/374214966166