The works council of Marie Claire, the stockings and pantyhose firm from Castellón, meets this morning at 10 am with the management of the company in what is expected to be the last meeting on the restructuring of the company. The appointment has been closed outside the negotiating table and it is the opportunity for both parties to agree on other points of view on the extinction ERE that ends on Friday and affects 190 company employees.
The president of the works council, Cristóbal Monfort, explains that he maintains the hope of reaching an agreement that satisfies the parties. After the meeting, it is expected that there will be an assembly of workers and workers to whom the previously reached agreement will be transferred.
For Monfort it is important that, despite the departure of the 190 people -already assumed by the staff- there is "an opportunity" for another 70 people who can continue in the company waiting for the entry of a new investor, the bet what the company did at the beginning of this labor dispute.
At the end of May, the company acknowledged that it was carrying out negotiations with its main creditors and carrying out an "active search" for investors interested in supporting the project to relaunch the brand.
"We understand that it is easier for the investor to enter without having to assume such a large salary mass," says Monfort, who attends today's meeting with a conciliatory tone. He thinks that the survival of the business is important, key in the Els Ports region, even if it is with only a hundred people (some 73 people at the Vilafranca plant and another thirty between Castelló and Valencia) and that implies the departure of almost two hundred people more. "It is an opportunity, but that 70 people stay means that they and their families have a way to continue living," Monfort defends.
The company's recovery plan focuses on finding a way out of all the liabilities that it has accumulated for more than five years and on the outsourcing of certain production lines, which seek to be more competitive in the textile sector "in the face of the high cost of manufacturing in Spain". The firm has also explained these weeks that its search for investors demonstrates Marie Claire's "commitment" to finding "effective solutions" to ensure the future of the company and maintain its position as a leader in the intimate lingerie market.
