After a holiday break, Cuca cannery workers will return to their factory in Villagarcia today, Jan. 7, even if their job status still remains uncertain. As of Wednesday, owner Conservas Garavilla, who wants to close the plant and shift production to its existing facility in O Grove, still had not communicated its future plans to the staff.
At a meeting held last week, the Cuca workers have decided to show up, ready to work, on Monday morning. If the factory is indeed closed, they plan to remain there to stop the company from removing machinery from the cannery.
Last week, the workers’ union met with members of the Galician regional government, in hopes of putting political pressure on Garavilla to rethink the relocation.
The workers’ union says the transfer would leave at least 250 people unemployed, and this includes about 150 temporary workers at the Cuca factory. The union believes it will be more profitable to reorganize the production lines at the Cuca cannery than to move the workers. It has said the quality standards in O Grove will be impossible to maintain, as the factory will be expected to produce Isabel’s flagship products as well as the Cuca and Masso brand lines.
The workers are prepared to organize a massive protest and they are ready to take the case to court, on the grounds that the closure is not justifiable.
The workers’ union wants Garavilla to postpone the proposed closure by three months, in the hopes that it will investigate other options for the Cuca cannery, which has been operating for more than 80 years.