dozens of workers and the works council of sunsundegui they were concentrate this Wednesday in Pamplona, in front of the Parliament of Navarre, demanding a “solution to the viability” of the company.
THE CCOO, ELA and LAB unions they have demanded the creation of a commission of inquiry in the Parliament of Navarre so that “everything that happened over the past 14 years is investigated because of mismanagement which was taken by the person who ran the company” sunsundeguiwhile the UGT considered that “if there are indications” of irregularities “they must be reported”and “if it is legally appropriate, we will be there later to demand accountability.”
This is what they emphasized David Trebejo (UGT) and Óscar Tellechea (LAB) in statements to the media. As Tellechea explains, the goal of concentration is “defend the future of the factory, Sunsundegi and the Sakana Valley“. “It is important to have a serious industrial project, which concerns the future of the factory and also of the valley. And let it be a plan that serves to move forward and that we do not see what we have had to see over the last 14 years,” he indicated.
“In 2013, The government of Navarre, Sodena, canceled a debt of 34 million euros which helped the business continue. It was done an economic model that did not workhas been a company that has had to continually ask for aid from the Government of Navarre, which has been of no use for the profit and enrichment of the staff, since the staff has been left in the path of salary cuts, wage freezes and layoffs,” he noted.
This situation, he added, “has also affected suppliers in the region.”“, and demanded “a serious industrial project that gives a future to the factory.” “To achieve this, we appeal to all the agents involved, such as the Government of Navarre, Sodena, the Board of Directors and all the agents who are involved in the search for a good, future-proof and sustainable solution for Sunsundegi”, he remarked, after emphasizing that “we will propose more mobilizations”.
On the other hand, he stressed that “also We want everything that happened over the past 14 years to be investigated due to mismanagement by the person who ran the company.”
As for possible creditorsstressed in response to journalists that “the only thing we know is what appeared in the press, that there were interested groups“Today we can’t say if everything is going well or what’s happening, we have no idea,” he said.
For his part, Trebejo stressed that the UGT submitted to Parliament a document “in which we make a brief history of what has happened since 2013”, which mentions “the debt that the government canceled”which represented “a fairly significant amount”.
“From there, the Model SunsundegiThrough many efforts, we worked and achieved minimum profitability from 2015 to 2020. At that time, the debt was slightly lower, four million, and things were quite acceptable for the company. It was from there that the Covid problem appeared, and thanks to the same inertia of the workload, in 2020 we were able to overcome the year, but it was in 2021 that it began to strongly affect us,” he said.
As he pointed out, “It was complicated” to make a company profitable at ERTE “with a minimum of financial power.” “Suntsundegi In 2013, we found ourselves with minimal financial strength. We didn’t have the funds to be able to support this kind of thing and that’s where the losses started,” he said, after adding that “we tried to remedy the situation” by increasing production, but “this was not carried out because there were problems being able to purchase the materials. »
“The doubt increased, until 2024, when some very interesting projects for Sunsundegi, with Volvowith B&D and this, for whatever reason, from the second half of 2024, they blurred” he said.
In this sense, demanded “that relations with Volvo resumewho was a totally essential customer for Sunsundegi and it continues to be so”, and asked regional parliamentarians “to work intensively and with great proactivity in the search for an investment partner for Sunsundegi”.
“Because Sunsundegi has a future. Sunsundegi has shown that if he has a workload, he has a future. And there are the results from 2007 to 2020 which show that we have had profits. What happened was that later, at the cost of the financial power that we did not have and the lack of equipment, we were ultimately unable to rectify the situation. But it is a viable company, with perfectly trained and prepared staff for all types of new energy and electrical projects,” he stressed.
Regarding the commission of inquiry that the other unions are demanding, he stressed that “we are not opposed to it”. “If someone reports something and there are irregularities, we are not opposed to Parliament or anyone opening the investigation. What we think is that if there are indications of something, it should be reported, and if it is legally appropriate, we will also be there later to demand accountability,” he said.
He also emphasized that “During these years, the accounts have been audited“, more precisely by “a prestigious world-class company”.
In response to the media, he stated that bankruptcy administrator “has not had a meeting with the committee at this time”. “I think I was walking past the business yesterday, we heard he was there, but no, they haven’t called us yet,” he commented.
IRUJO’S RESPONSE
For his part, the Minister of Industry and Ecological and Economic Digital Transition of the Government of Navarra, Mikel Irujo, declared that the Executive continues the “active search” for an industrial partner for the Sunsundegui company.
Irujo emphasized, in response to questions from journalists at the press conference after the government session, that “we have clearly expressed as a government the commitment we have had to this industrial opportunity that Sunsundugeui had in 2023, with this new business opportunity. was opening up on the company’s horizon.
Thus, he explained that “on the part of the Government of Navarra, we responded to the two requests for financing that the company sent us, precisely because we understood that it could ensure this industrial future”.
Irujo indicated that “as it has not been possible to reorient the situation, we have been actively looking for an industrial partner for months, in which we are continuing.”
