JSP workers in Lanzarote, on tenterhooks about the future of the company and "tired of lies"

The Canarian firm announced the entry of an investment group that would avoid bankruptcy proceedings, but unions and employees are distrustful. "I have a feeling we won't make it to next month," says one of them.

May 31 2021 (21:01 WEST)
JSP
JSP

Receiving their paychecks "in dribs and drabs for a year and a half," waiting for two extra payments that have not been paid since 2019, and, above all, with enormous "uncertainty" about their future and that of the company. This is how JSP workers in Lanzarote are experiencing the situation facing the Canarian firm, in which they have less and less confidence.

"I have a feeling we won't make it to next month," says one of the employees with resignation, who distrusts the latest announcements and is preparing for the worst-case scenario: closure and layoffs. He explains that they have been suffering the agony of the company for many years, which did not recover from the economic crisis of a decade ago and is now facing the one generated by Covid-19.

The vision conveyed by employees and unions clashes with the optimistic message launched last week by JSP, announcing that it had closed an agreement with the Hiperion investment group, which would avoid the bankruptcy proceedings for which they had already given pre-notice. "It generated hope, because they said they had signed an agreement for the sale, but it seems that the accounts were doctored and that it is not viable," says this worker. And it is that the news, like the payrolls, also comes to them in dribs and drabs.

"The relationship with the works council is nil," complains the general secretary of Industry of CCOO in the Canary Islands, Juan Miguel Hernández, who questions that the company does not even inform them of what is happening and they have to follow the news through the media.

In the case of that supposed purchase, he stresses that the next day another news item cast doubt on that operation, revealing that JSP's debt was not really 50 million, but 64 million euros, which jeopardized the acquisition. "It is completely inexplicable in a supposedly audited company and only highlights the disastrous management and lack of transparency of its managers," denounces CCOO, which also points to the internal "struggle" between the company's administrators, specifically between the CEO and the Sánchez Peñate family. For this reason, the union representative says that they receive "with caution" the possibility of that purchase, which is still pending final signature and therefore up in the air.

 

More than 500 direct jobs at stake

"This is total uncertainty. Both JSP and the Sánchez family have not stopped lying to the workers all this time and continue to do so," criticizes Juan Miguel Hernández, who recalls that there are 500 direct jobs that depend on this Canarian company, in addition to many other indirect ones.

Most are in Gran Canaria and Tenerife, but in Lanzarote it also has about 16 employees who say that they "continue working normally," although with less activity, without doing overtime and always waiting to receive their salaries. "Those who pay a mortgage at the beginning of the month and have a family and more expenses have it complicated," explains one of them. And it is that although they do end up collecting their salary, it arrives split into two or three payments and always late.

"The collection of payrolls is a disaster," say from Comisiones Obreras, which explains that if they do not promote more drastic measures, such as a strike, it is precisely because they could give the company the final blow. In fact, Juan Miguel Hernández stresses that when they have made mobilizations they have done so on weekends, so that it does not affect the activity. "But the workers are tired of so many lies, which come from many years ago," he insists.

Since the previous crisis, the staff accepted a reduction in their payrolls to avoid layoffs, and regrets that in the end the layoffs arrived anyway, and the salaries were never recovered, despite the promises. And to that is now added the extra payments that they have been owing for two years.

In addition, they argue that the company is viable and "continues to produce money," "because otherwise the employment would have been destroyed." The problem, they say, is in "very bad management" and that the company, dedicated to the production and sale of dairy products, got into urban planning businesses. "The investments that were made were very bad and have been leading the workers to this situation," criticize from CCOO, which questions that the Government of the Canary Islands is not intervening. "It is a company that has received a lot of public money and many subsidies," he stresses.

In the case of Lanzarote, according to other union representatives, JSP also bought plots and has hotels in Playa Blanca, although it has them rented and does not directly manage the operation, so those employees do not depend on the firm.

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