España - Spanish Market Leader Dismantles Tuna Equipment For Transfer To El Salvador

miércoles 10 de diciembre de 2003

Spain, December 10, 03

Spanish market leader, Calvo, dismantles three fish cooking equipment from its plant in Carballo, Spain and expects to transfer them to its new factory El Salvador.

Calvo has recently finished negotiating an agreement with the labor unions to allow the relocation of its personnel and therefore avoid dismissals. "We will most probably transfer the machinery to El Salvador, however the final decision has not yet been taken" said Calvo's spokesman. " It is certain, however, that the Carballo plant has more work guaranteed with new sectors,"
he said.

"If the working process of pre-cooking, cutting and cleaning of tuna is eliminated at the Calvo Carballo plant, at mid term, only about 120 of the current 420 employees will have a job at these facilities" denounced Food secretary general to the National Labor Union CCOO, Francisco Vilar.

Vilar considers that the new Latin American plants of the Galician canneries are already destroying employment as at the moment there are 300 standby employees, which are not being called on during production peaks".

Only two months after Calvo had started up its factory in El Salvador, its main competitor, Jealsa, already commenced trial activities at its plant in Guatemala, with 173 employees. Jealsa, manufacturer of the Rianxeira brand, came in second in achieving the opening of a Latin American plant, because of a fire at the facilities, which caused over a year delay to the production activities in Guatemala.

The Galician manufacturers assure, opposing accusations by the unions that the internationalization is not going to eliminate job "because new positions in other sections of greater technology and added value will be generated". The industry considers that the opening of Spanish owned canneries abroad has an objective triple: to create job where the fish is; to be able to export to third countries; to concentrate the Galician factories on the final canning process, marketing and innovation.