Palencia (EFE).- The two hundred workers of the Cerealto SIRO biscuit factory in Venta de Baños (Palencia) face a decisive week in which it will be determined if the property goes ahead with the closure of the factory, or if it finally sells to any investor interested in maintaining activity and employment.
“Everything is very open,” sources from the company told EFE on Monday, which does not deny that there is a closure on the table, nor that there are investors interested in buying the factory, and that it insists that they are leaving to study all the possibilities following the itinerary established in the plan agreed in June 2022.
neither yes nor no
In this way, from Cerealto Siro they neither confirm nor deny that there is an offer for the purchase of the Venta de Baños 1 biscuit factory, as announced this Monday by the spokesman for the Junta de Castilla y León and Minister of Economy, Carlos Fernández Carriedo, who has stated that the foreign company interested in acquiring the factory has already submitted a firm offer.
Everything trusts the meeting scheduled for June 9 at the Ministry of Industry and that the company considers decisive because all the possibilities will be on the table in a scenario that, as Cerealto has recognized, is still very open.
All parties hope that the five-party meeting -Ministry of Industry, Junta de Castilla y León, Venta de Baños City Council, workers and company) will clarify the horizon of the Venta de Baños factory, one of the four that the multinational has in Castilla y León and the oldest of the group.
The committee alert
Meanwhile, in the works council they have decided not to sit “idly by” and are promoting meetings this week with the Minister of Economy and the Government delegate, Virginia Barcones, so that they can inform them about the situation and be able to reassure the workers.
“We want to know the truth. If we have your support and if you have spoken with any of those companies. That they clarify for us if there is indeed an investor even if they do not tell us who it is ”, the president of the works council, Marimar Rodríguez, told EFE.
They also want to clarify the real claims of the company (Cerealto SIRO) which they accuse of “lack of transparency” with the workers and even of showing zero interest in selling the factory.
All in one
The objective of the committee is to bring a unanimous position to the meeting on Friday at the Ministry and ensure that the new ownership of Cerealto “does not end a process that has not even begun,” Rodríguez insisted.
Meanwhile, they have asked the workers to calm down and the administrations to “precaution” so that “false expectations” are not created in such a delicate matter, since two hundred direct jobs are at stake, many are indirect, and the economic fabric of the municipality.
It should not be forgotten that Cerealto SIRO employs 750 people in the two factories it has in Venta de Baños and is the most important industry in the town, as the mayor, José María López Acero, has pointed out to EFE.
Activity, employment and conditions
“We do not contemplate a future without Venta de Baños 1”, López Acero assured, convinced that on Friday the situation can be “turned around” and leave the meeting at the Ministry with an offer that guarantees the viability of the activity and employment.
In addition to knowing if there is an interested buyer, the mayor considers it essential to clarify the conditions that Cerealto imposes to sell and if in any way it may be hindering and putting “obstructions” in the sales process.
In any case, the maximum concern in the municipality are jobs in a context of depopulation, after Venta de Baños has undergone a major reconversion that also affects the municipalities of the alfoz and the capital, the mayor has stated.
“We must all get involved to the maximum so that (the closure) does not happen”, he has settled before insisting that the loss of this factory would be a hard blow for commerce, hospitality and the services of Venta de Baños.
Just one year ago, on June 5, 2022, SIRO workers gathered in the town square to prevent the closure of the biscuit plant on which an expiration date is once again planned, despite the fact that it did not The term agreed at the time has expired, which gave a two-year margin (June 2024) for negotiations to save activity and employment. EFE