The 19 people, almost all women, who make up the factory staff cake key in Lominchar (Toledo) unanimously decided to launch a unlimited partial strike to “try to put an end to the constant and prolonged delays in the recovery of their salaries”.
Up to five workers have voluntarily left the company “with one hand in front and one behind” in recent months, unable to progress due to lack of income. The remaining 19 have decided to “trigger an indefinite strike next Monday to demand that their employer assumes its responsibilities,” declared the CCOO union.
Pastelkey, dedicated to the manufacture of croissants, puff pastries and other pastry products for clients such as El Corte Inglés, Ahorramás or Erosky, moved to Lominchar in March 2023, just two months after the fire at its Fuenlabrada facilities ( Madrid).
As CCOO reports in a statement, “The businessman attributes his current salary shortcomings to the difficulties he says he is having in obtaining insurance for the incident. But even before moving to Lominchar, I had a rule late payment of payroll. And the “sister” company, Distribuciones Esteso, responsible for transporting the products Pastelkey makes to customers, also owes its truck drivers and office worker two months.
The 19 Pastelkey workers received their pay for the month of August, despite this, in the afternoon they decided to go on strike on Monday. They will stop for an hour, from 10:20 a.m. to 11:20 a.m.a critical period in the process of making puff pastry and croissants because this is the moment when they enter the oven.
Last week, during the mediation preceding the start of the strike, the owner of Pastelkey promised to pay the payroll for the month of August, but not to settle the arrears of the agreement owed to the squad-between 500 and 1,200 euros per person- and to no longer pay the monthly payments on time, the union indicated.
He committed to it last June, in another mediation before the strike. The staff then chose to believe that the businessman would indeed repay his debts and regularize his salaries. But he didn’t do it. He doesn’t seem to want to either.
“Now he says the ‘insurance’ doesn’t pay him, but he doesn’t present any documents to prove it; nor does it provide an account; and he doesn’t commit to anything. Salaries are minimal and if, on top of that, they take two or three months to arrive, people have to postpone mortgage payments and bills and debts pile up. “They cannot continue like this,” explains María Jesús Fernández, general secretary of CCOO Industria de Toledo.
“This Thursday morning, they were paid for the month of August, yes. But in the afternoon, they decided to go on strike because they can no longer prolong this situation. The owner of Pastelkey cannot hope to satisfy his customers and satisfy himself at the expense of his workers,” Fernández stressed.
