The general secretary of the PCP defended on Wednesday that the production stoppage at Autoeuropa is exclusively due to a “management error” by the Volkswagen group, but those who bear the costs are the workers and the Portuguese State.
“The bill is too much for the workers, who lose part of their income, which in some cases amounts to a cut of 33% of their income,” said Paulo Raimundo, adding that the workers also end up being penalized in another way. , since part of the salaries [durante o `lay-off´] They are paid with money from the workers that comes from Social Security,” he added.
Paulo Raimundo spoke to journalists after a meeting with members of the Workers’ Representative Organizations (ORT) of the Autoeuropa industrial park, in a community near the Volkswagen car factory, in Palmela, in the district of Setúbal.
Asked about the assessment that the Government is making of the situation at Autoeuropa and in the companies affected by the stoppage of production at the Palmela factory, Paulo Raimundo considered that one of the solutions should be the integration of workers who have already been laid off in the companies.
The Government can study a lot, but, while it studies, the truth is that there are already more than 500 workers who have been laid off, not to mention the more than 7,000 workers who, at this moment, are already beginning to take cuts in their jobs. income,” he said.
“I only hope that the government does not present measures that, in essence, continue to subsidize those who make precarious contracts with workers. that are needed in companies every day. If there is any result from this study, it at least guarantees that these people are hired for what they do every day, because it is an everyday job, and not to maintain temporary or precarious contracts.”
The communist leader also reiterated the idea that Autoeuropa’s problem is due to a “management error“, considering that a company of such a large size should not depend on a single supplier of some parts for automobile production.
We have conditions in our country, in Portugal, in and around the industrial park, to minimize this dependence, to transform parts into cars here. We have this capacity. It is necessary to reduce this dependence,” said Paulo Raimundo, recognizing, however, that this solution would increase the price of vehicles produced in Palmela.
For the general secretary of the PCP, “with the just-in-time management model (which allows you to reduce costs by eliminating or reducing storage needs), which in this case [da Autoeuropa] It was just going home (they just go home), the company never takes any risks.”
There is a problem, parts are missing, how to solve it? The workers are sent home and the State pays. In this case, it is the Portuguese State that pays with Social Security money, money that belongs to all of us. I don’t know if we should return to the previous model of self-storage, which gave work to many people in warehouses, but maintaining this situation cannot continue,” said the communist leader.
Source: Observadora
