What is the current situation of Mercedes?

We are on line 10, members of the works council and delegates continue to hamper production because Titos (Emilio Titos, director of Mercedes Vitoria) wanted us to work until 14:00, and we say that we do not have to make more vans. Other points in the chain of work have also stopped, now everything is stopped.

The company wanted to keep normal until 14:00 hours, that at 14:00 hours came a few of the next shifts to empty the chains, and that during the night came in maintenance people and staff needed to stop everything. At 12:30 we will have a meeting with the management and in the meantime we have decided to stop everything.

The works council has requested the presence of the Ertzaintza so that it can be proved that the safety measures to prevent contagion were not complied with. Has Ertzaintza appeared?

At first he did not want to appear, but they have finally appeared at 11:00 hours to check if the measures were being complied with – metro and a half among the workers, face masks…. They have met with members of the Works Council and the management of the company and have left [in a video broadcast by the workers you see a member of the Works Council giving explanations to the workers. They inform them that Titos has told the Ertzaintza that safety is guaranteed, among other things that they clean the tools every time they move from one worker's hands to another's, and the shouts of the denied workers are heard.]

How did the protest rise in the morning?

At 6:00 in the morning, at least some delegates have been warning workers not to get in the vans more than two people and respecting the distances. This has been more or less completed, production has been maintained, albeit at a slightly slower pace than usual. The company wanted to continue with normal business. We had to have a meeting with Titos at 9:30, but it hasn’t appeared. So the members of the works council and the delegates started a sit-in at the end of the production line, and since then everything has stopped.

Closure of the company. Under what conditions will the workers be left?

A meeting is scheduled at 12:30 a.m., in which it is not known what will happen. We will have to negotiate whether this stop is flexible, or whether it is temporary regulation or what. Management is likely to want a regulatory dossier. As a Works Council, we have not yet done anything, but we believe that the company should take on board the situation.

What incidence has coronavirus had so far in Mercedes?

We don't have all the information. We know that two weeks ago there was a case in the final assembly line. And that some people have gone home from fever, nothing else. The company has only sent us one case, but we do not know if it is true.

CAF, Irizar, Volkswagen -- they're closing big companies.

So we didn't understand why we had to stay open. It seems to us to be nonsense. Still being here on duty is a nonsense, but at least we have managed to stop production. We're happy, but with little sense of not stopping before. The company wanted to continue, but we have joined the works council and the workers. The workers did not want to work and they did the right thing, it was the victory of the workers.