"Now they're just making money. They'll end up burying the territory": Freixenet workers demonstrate in Sant Sadurní

BarcelonaHundreds of people, mostly employees of the Freixenet Henkell company, demonstrated this Wednesday in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia (Alt Penedès) to protest against the redundancy plan (ERE). presented by the company and which includes the dismissal of 180 workers, 24% of the workforce.

The protest takes place on the second day of a four-day strike called by the wine company's works councils, which began Monday night and will continue until Thursday. The protesters began a march through the streets of the municipality from the Freixenet headquarters to the Town Hall, where all parties expressed their opposition to the labor plan. "Behind the ERE lies a relocation and a change in the production model for the Penedès that cannot be allowed," declared the mayor of Sant Sadurní, Pere Vernet, who received the workers' representatives at the town hall on Tuesday.

During the demonstration, those attending shouted slogans against the ERE and the company's management, accompanied by firecrackers and flares. Tempers have worsened in recent days after the company announced at a meeting last Friday that most of the layoffs would affect employees under 50 years of age, contrary to what was initially expected, because Freixenet wants to avoid the costs of the so-called Telefónica clause, the legal doctrine that requires companies to compensate for the ERE (redundancy plan). "The intention is to leave a greatly reduced workforce," said Antonio Domínguez, president of the Freixenet works council. "We feel the company is ours, we carry it in our hearts because cava is a product that is ours, an identity of Catalonia," he insisted. "Now they're just doing business. They'll end up burying the territory," he added, referring to the group's management.

Transfer of workers abroad

The tension escalated even further at the sixth meeting, which took place on Tuesday afternoon, when the company's lawyers were greeted by some workers throwing eggs and flour and had to leave the meeting through a police cordon. During the meeting, Freixenet executives proposed to the unions that they reduce the number of layoffs if between 30 and 35 employees agreed to work at Henkell facilities in Italy or Germany. "Why don't you invest here? It's a provocation," Domínguez responded publicly.

Henkell is the German company that owns 50.7% of Freixenet's shares since the founding Bonet and Ferrer families sold their majority stake in 2018 for over €200 million. The company is a subsidiary of the multinational food company Geschwister Oetker and is one of the world's leading producers of sparkling wine.

Domínguez recalled that Henkell executives "are killing cava" with the redundancy plan (ERE) – Freixenet is the main producer of the Cava Designation of Origin (DOC) – which will serve to consolidate a change in the business model implemented following the drought that affected Catalonia over the past three years. According to the unions, Freixenet has opted to export sparkling wines made with grapes from Castilla-La Mancha and presented in a similar way to Cava, but which do not carry the DOC label and are produced in four months, compared to the twelve required by Cava regulations.