"We are totally helpless." This is how it defines its situation and that of its colleagues Carlos Esveves, 55, former head of maintenance of several mines of Asturias and stopped since January 2020. "There is no paid training, nor absolutely jobs, are limited to send us Infojobs offers by whatsapp. I would ask them to do the favor of getting in touch with people, this is not a joke, "he responds outraged.
Carlos's anger is widespread, both in the mining sector and in the coal thermal power plants, due to the slowness with which the employment bags of both sectors represented people who lost their work after closures. These are a part of the 3,329 workers who had employment in the coal facilities at the closing date of each of them according to the ministry for the ecological transition.
After the closures, the bags would seek training and new jobs for surplus workers, coming mostly from auxiliary companies. But the data, obtained in part by transparency request, reflect that only 39.8% have employment. That is, 375 people from 942 enrolled.
If the agreement had been met, the mining surpluses would be working since 2019 or 2020 in environmental restorations of the mines, which have not yet begun because the necessary agreements with the autonomous communities were delayed. In October of 2021 the first was signed in Asturias, a few days ago the Castilla y León was agreed and still fail to sign that of Aragon.
Víctor Fernández, responsible for the mining sector of UGT-FICA, regrets that there are minings that should be working on these tasks and that, on the contrary, exhausted unemployment in 2020. "People had to look for life when the Stop and, obviously, many went to work at other sites because they will have to eat, "explains Fernandez. "When the restoration can be offered, we will see what decision they take," he adds.
Therefore, 61.4% of the mining surpluses that are working on the ministry data does it mostly in activities outside the mining, against what agreed between government, employers and unions.
In the other bag, that of thermal power plants, 577 people were enrolled after the large closures of 2020. Most of the registered, 97.4%, came from auxiliary companies that did not provide them with any solution. "Ere extinguisher and 'Pa' house," sums Valentín Pérez, a 34-year-old skill worker.
In light of the ministry data, the reality is that many remain at home (173), but of many others (245) their situation is unknown because they have not delivered data to the ministry. Valentín says that "some entered the bag, but nobody called them" and that the rest simply abandoned the territory as a result of transfers of job or in search of a place with job opportunities.
"Half of the people left, almost all for the Ascó nuclear power plant, who had a stop, some of Alcoa ... but it does not see much future either," Valentín's. And he alert that certain companies have led to external labor for the dismantling of the plants instead of having surpluses of the Stock Exchange, according to the agreement.
ELOY SARDIÑA, ENDESA worker at the port of Ferrol (which comes the coal from as Pontes), also criticizes the transfers of his companions: "The majority of those of Endesa displaced them more than 1,000 kilometers from their homes, to The hydraulic power plants of the Pyrenees, "he says," and those of Maesa were taken to Avilés and France. "
From Endesa they say that the transfers "have always been offered" and that "they have been given training to relocate them in other activities of the company in the same area". "It is rare the case that may have been transferred to the person further from the natural location of him," they defend.
Other energetics have also resorted to relocations after closures. It is the case of IBERDROLA that, according to letters to which the world has had, moved to a worker at the Lada thermal power plant (Asturias) to the Nuclear of Cofrentes (Valencia) "not having received a response" from the employee in question .
ELOY considers that "it is not being a fair transition" because "the change should be ordered and really what is having irregular situations of concealed transfers." He also criticizes the temporary reactivation of as payments, for which they have a contract until the end of the year. "Psychologically this happens bill because people leave, is in adaptation at a new center and when it is not yet adapted, it has to come back, in the port there are workers who come for a week every 15 days and have to come back to Go. It is not a pleasant situation for families, "protest.
According to the ministry's just transition strategy for the ecological, vertebrate transition of the agreements signed with companies and unions, the coal closure agreements have "as a priority objective the maintenance and creation of activity and employment in the area" and the " Fixation of population in rural territories ".
Demographic data show that, at the moment, it has not been: 93 of the 118 municipalities marked by ministry as affected by the closures lost population in the last two years. In addition, they are precisely the municipalities with more mines and more thermal power plants, the most empty: those located in Asturias, León, Teruel and Palencia.
The unions and the employer of coal (carbunion) attribute it to the slowness of the measures and the lack of opportunities. "The ministry tells us that he is doing intense work, but they are complex issues and do not develop at the speed at which we would all like," says Pedro Church, President of Carbunion.
And coincides José Luis Alpèri, De Soma-Ugt: "We are talking about monocultures of coal and there is nothing in return, they are condemning us emigration and depopulation and I think that is not the idea of this government ... Comarcas are waiting for them to go from the words to the facts. "
Date Of Update: 07 December 2021, 08:27
