Nervion, the most important subsidiary of Navantia-Ferrol, sacked its entire workforce in July. The workers have set up camp outside the main port and are beginning to take initiatives in the struggle to win their jobs back.
However, there is more at stake in the struggle of the Nervion workers than jobs. What is at stake is the worsening of the already terrible working conditions for the workers in the subsidiaries and shipyards as well as in the whole region.
Nervion, which could maintain full production, has transferred its factory to Fene, Navantia's other production centre in the Ferrol region. The company was then able to use the excuse that the workers would also have to be transferred and would therefore have to sign new contracts because their previous contracts "were with Ferrol". According to Nervion, the job has come to an end, therefore so too have the contracts. But this is a lie. Nervion argues that Ferrol and Fene are different production centres. However, both are considered one centre of production of Navantia, with one manager, head of personnel, etc.
The new contracts with Fene will mean the loss of the gains made at Ferrol and includes, amongst other things, a clause which says that if the workers end up returning to Ferrol, the new contract with Fene will remain in place. So the contract with Navantia-Ferrol is not valid at Fene, yet the new contracts at Fene, which will be worse, will be valid at Ferrol. The new contracts will also mean and end to permanent positions. This is absolutely shameful. The whole thing is exposed as an excuse to attack the conditions of the workers at the plant. Beyond simply being an attack, this manoeuvre is an insult that no worker with dignity could accept.
Nervion transferred its workers to Fene over the course of one year. In the end, there were 139 workers left, who were sacked, including some of the temporary workers and all of the workers with permanent positions.
Of the 139 sacked workers, some finally decided to go to Fene or to other Nervion companies in the area. Some 90 decided to stay and fight. The majority of these are permanent workers. These experienced workers, who combine trade union experience with excellent skills in the work place, know that they could find a job whenever they wanted, even in Nervion itself. Some were sacked from Astano in the restructuring of 1984-85. Some of these went to work for other companies and went through similar experiences. As one of the workers said, "at sixty years of age, no one messes with me."
The workers from Nervion must win. In order to do this the struggle must be extended and generalised. Nervion must become a new Sintel, a symbol of struggle against job instability and attacks on working conditions.
The first task is to extend the struggle throughout the parent company Navantia, where a committee in support of the Nervion workers must be formed. Workers from all of Navantia's production centres must be involved in order to help the sacked workers in their activities and struggle, such as the collection of signatures they have undertaken.
The workers of Nervion must link their struggle with workers involved in other struggles such as the workers at CESPA and Eléctrica del Narahío with the aim of mobilising together. This should include a big demonstration against job insecurity and the abuses of the companies. Shop stewards' committees should be contacted, assemblies formed in workplaces, industrial complexes and factories should be leafleted along with workers neighbourhoods and districts.
The workers of Nervion are today under attack because of the gains they have won and their high degree of organisation. The defeat of these workers would be a serious defeat for the whole of the working class. Other workers in subsidiary companies and workers that are involved in, or struggling against, outsourcing will find themselves in a similar situation. The interests of the workers of Nervion are the same as the interests of the whole of the working class. The struggle of the Nervion workers is the struggle of the whole working class, and we must help to ensure victory!
We ask all comrades and supporters to send messages of solidarity to the Nervion workers and to send letters of protest to Navantia and its subsidiary Nervion. We provide model letters and messages below.
Send to: auxiliares_navantia@hotmail.com
Dear brothers and sisters of Nervión:
We express our total support for your demands and stand in solidarity with you.
We encourage you to struggle for these demands, even though at times it will be difficult, because the workers have never been given anything. Everything we have has been won through struggle and our solidarity.
And although unfortunately we do not always win every time we enter the road of struggle, it is absolutely certain that if we never fight we will always lose. For this reason it so important that we do not any attack go, that we defend our rights, and achieve our just demands. Your struggle is a struggle for the dignity of the entire working class.
In solidarity,
Send to:
Nervion: galicia@monesa.es
President of Navantia: jpgomez@navantia.es
SEPI: información@sepi.es
For the immediate and unconditional re-instatement of all the sacked workers of Nervion!
We the undersigned would like to demonstrate our most energetic rejection of the sacking of the workers of Nervión Montajes y Mantenimientos at the Navantia-Ferrol factory on July 16, 2006. We demand the following:
1. The immediate re-instatement of the sacked workers to their old positions with the same rights and under the same conditions as before they were sacked.
2. The return of production to the factory in Ferrol which was artificially transfered to Fene, a move which was used as the excuse to sack the workers and attack working conditions.
3. We demand an end to the policies which are only designed to worsen the working conditions of the workers in the subsidiary plants and factories.
4. We demand an end to job insecurity and attacks on conditions, the promotion of job stability and the honouring of all agreements and contracts
Against job insecurity and company abuse of the workers!
You can find the above information in Spanish on the website of the Spanish Marxist current El Militante.