She’s rolling down her factory Youla company in Aegaleo, as reported by the GSEE in its announcement.

According to what GSEE reports today, it was suddenly announced to the employees that the management of the company decided to put a lock on it in the business. “Indeed, in order to proceed quickly with the liquidation, he proposed to the employees twice the legal compensation, so that they would sign voluntary departures, but staying out of the unemployment fund” stresses the GSEE, which requests the immediate intervention of the co-competent Ministries of Labor and Development so that he can be found immediately solution and the factory to continue its operation through a new investor.

“It is not possible for the second largest glass manufacturing group in the world, with factories all over Europe and beyond, to close the only factory in Greece, a factory that has been operating for over 70 years, even having staff that the majority of them have been working in the company for at least 20 years”, concludes the GSEE announcement.

It is recalled that the Giula glassworks, which was founded in 1947, passed into the hands of the Portuguese group BA Vidro in 2016 for 500 million euros.

Based on the latest accounting statements of the company appearing in GEMI, “Youla” registered a turnover of 60.8 million euros in 2022, from 41.7 million euros in 2021, with losses falling to 239 thousand euros from 2.16 million euros a year ago. In its report EY, which acted as an Independent Statutory Auditor, drew attention to the fact that total equity had become negative.

SYRIZA, PASOK and New Left are asking for government intervention

The immediate intervention of the government for the protection of the 300 workers of the GIOULA factory, which is “leading to a sudden lockout”, are requested by SYRIZA MPs Giorgos Gavrilos, Rena Dourou and Nikos Pappas, who submitted a question to the Parliament.

SYRIZA-PS emphasizes, among other things, that “It cannot be tolerated that investors appear in our country, who, due to the crisis and liquidity problems of domestic companies, buy the Greek production base and within a short period of time, undisturbed, sell off the infrastructures, stop the production machines and leave highly skilled personnel on the road”, state the MPs who submitted the question and warn that “the closure of the GIOULA factory in Aegaleo will further contribute to the economic degradation of the region, while it is going to deprive our country of an important production unit of glassmaking, which until now was also known at an international level”.

The state, the MPs of SYRIZA-PS state in their Question, must immediately protect the workers and provide a way out for them and their families, otherwise it will send the signal that in our country the labor legislation and the legally described employers’ obligations are observed only at their discretion and only for the benefit of the interests.

They ask the relevant ministers what actions they intend to take so that a tripartite meeting can take place immediately at the Ministry. Work with the aim of finding a sustainable solution for the 300 workers, as well as what actions he intends to take in order to save the operation of the glassworks in Aegaleo.

In their joint statement on the matter, Giorgos Mulkiotis, Member of Parliament of Viotia and responsible for K.T.E. of Labor & Social Security and Michalis Kalantzopoulos, Secretary of the PASOK-Movement of Change Labor Sector, also refer to the “sudden lockout”, stressing that the immediate intervention of the relevant Ministries of Labor and Social Affairs and Development is absolutely imperative, in order to find a solution, for the factory to continue uninterrupted operation and the 300 employees, the majority of whom have been working for more than 20 years, to keep their jobs.

“Our support for the workers and their families is self-evident, just as our assistance in immediately finding a sustainable solution for the continuation of the operation of the factory is self-evident,” conclude the two PASOK MPs.

To prevent the lockout at the “Youla” glassworks and to save all jobs, the New Left also asks, which also submitted a question to the Parliament, to the Ministers of Labour, Development, National Economy & Finance.

“At a time when the government is praising itself for the performance of the economy and the rate of growth – which apparently have not improved the position of workers, only profits and surplus profits – comes the lockout of a production unit, with about 300 workers being driven to the unemployment”, note the MPs of the New Left. They also state that the closure of the “Youla” factory will deprive our country of an important production unit and at the same time will lead to further economic degradation in the already multi-burdened Western Athens.

Finally, they ask the relevant ministers if they knew about the lockout, how they would intervene to prevent it, to save all jobs and ensure workers’ rights, as well as how the lockout fits in a production unit with around 300 workers, with the triumphalisms about the course of the economy.