Moura: As a law of the European Union on China ended 105 jobs.
The European Union (EU) It ended the rates of import solar panels from China. And the Moura plant closed a week later, exacerbating unemployment in the most affected municipalities in the country.
Reporting Sky Neves
Journalist
Daily News
“It is an ax in the county.” This is the expression that workers and leaders of local bodies of Moura, as the local authority and the parish, They use to describe the end of the solar panel factory in the region. It was the fourth region with more unemployment in the country, 13% – worse only Barrancos (15,8%), Mesão Frio (13,3 %) and Lamego (13,1%), second IEFP data to 2017. Are now more 105 unemployed people. All with an average age of 39 year old, including ten couples.
Fabio Cardona and Patricia Augusto had the first job in the Moura Solar Factory. Fabio is Estremoz and started dating Patricia, it was de Moura. They had knowledge that would open a factory and enrolled, he had 23 it's her 25. It is part of the first group hired by Acciona, the owner of the Spanish company Moura Solar Factory which also has the Moura Photovoltaic Power Station. The job helped the couple to settle in the city, one of those stories which counteracts the abandonment of the interior, They built their family around the factory, They had two daughters.
after them, there were three phases recruiting, between December 2007 and September 2008. The plant would begin to labor shortly after. “It was an early project, built from scratch and with new equipment, I had everything to continue”, says Fabio. made training, Fabio was technical maintenance and Patricia quality operator. They are working in eight-hour shifts and they exchanged every two weeks, They liked what they were doing. A factory laborava 24 hours per day, from Monday to Friday. For the middle of an interior municipality, well earned, 800/900 euros per month. daughters, of 5 and 12 year old, living and studying in Moura.
On 7 January, Acciona changed a story that had everything to keep happy. It announced to employees that the company was not economically viable and they would enter into negotiations for the collective dismissal. Fabio Cardona is steward of Sindel (National Industry and Energy Union), one of the structures, a par do SIESI (Union of South Electric Industries and Islands), will participate in the negotiations of compensation.
What happened was a change in Brussels, what, on 3 of September, He gave out more than one hundred lives in Moura. Partners who explored the solar panel factory, Chinese Solar Jinko, They stopped producing in September 2018, a week after the European Commission to eliminate import duties of Chinese solar panels. These rates had been imposed in 2013, after an investigation concluded that Chinese companies were selling solar panels in Europe below normal market prices – the so-called dumping. Now the decision was revoked, with the Chinese government to be pleased by the measure generate a “more stable and predictable business environment” so that both parties can get industries “advantageous results”.
And the Moura plant no longer has Préstimo for Jinko, who channeled the orders to their factories from China.
Again the use of emigration ?
It was the blow that coincided with the end of the ten-year period in which Acciona was required to keep more than one hundred jobs. This obligation stemmed from the purchase of the Portuguese company Amper Central Solar (Photovoltaic Amareleja). The last group of workers was hired in September 2008.
Emigration is the last resort. And now, the same factory closed? “It is very difficult to get a job because it is a small middle. It's hard enough for one or two people, now 105 once is too complicated. Where there might be something in the field is, but is ending pick olives”, says Fabio. The daughters were smaller, pondered emigrate. “It will be the last resort, leave home, daughters in school…” And without hope that a company take on MFS. “Moura is a secluded. There is a passage, just come here whoever. Even for the industry is very complicated, the lack of access very difficult investment.”
LuÃs Cruz, of 60 year old, He signed in the first group and followed the entire process of launching the MFS. It was several times a Technological Complex Polo de Moura, where the plant is installed, before this open doors. “I can not say that I have put the first stone because the facilities were ready, but I saw enter the machines, I saw it grow”, account, still thrilled.
The joy he felt when he entered turned into anguish when he left, 11 years after signing the contract.
Emigration has been an option for Luis Cruz, 60 year old. At least before it created an industrial hub in their land, Moura – Polo had three companies, Now going back to have two. Luis lived 24 years in Switzerland, but now he says he no longer has age to return to emigrate. Apart from that the woman has a store, which ensures the second family income. This despite the children have been in Switzerland. It has four grandchildren.
Louis joined the factory when he left abroad, as a laborer, The last was rececionista, He was the oldest. “It's who spoils the average young age of the company”, play fellow. The general feeling is unbelief, up because orders were not lacking. Adds Milton Raimundo: “Until recently, the factory was full of solar panels, which means that orders had. What is in sight is that Jinko left a week after being removed from the rates for the import of Chinese solar panels.”
Milton Raimundo has 40 years and is part of the second group of contractors. Before, He worked with his father in a locksmithing. He entered the factory as a laborer, now it was turn coordinator. The woman is a civil servant. Moura has five parishes and 14 004 residents. It is an aged county, with a ratio of 148,6 old to a hundred young. Few children are born, even with the support of 500 euros which the local authority gives in kind every newborn. And those that are born just to leave when they reach adulthood.
A deserted place.
The city streets are deserted, neighborhoods with houses closed, sign that its inhabitants died or emigrated. A bleak picture is the Municipal Market D. Pedro V, the continuity of the Municipality of Moura, with empty stalls. Only on Friday and Saturday has more sellers, still remains empty. “The way to achieve that younger stay is make sure they have a life project. And this can only be achieved with a job, what's not”, regrets the mayor, Ãlvaro Azedo. They introduced a measure to attract entrepreneurs, not charging municipal fees to companies based in the county. Not one managed to win.
Much of the active population works in the public sector, particularly in the municipality, which is about 400 officials.
MFS was the largest private employer in the county. The other private have a much reduced staff. For example, Agricultural Cooperative Moura and Barrancos employs around 50 workers; Castello Water Company, 12.
“Our governments do not help, They could pull the inside and do nothing. just now, in this discussion of the new airport, could bet on the Beja airport, which has the largest track and helped develop a little the region, but go to Montijo”, complains Paula Paulino, of 34 year old. I worked at the factory, as husband or, David Paulino, 38 year old. She was in welding and he was shunter stacker.
“He had worked as an administrative office and was on a course related with solar panels. As my husband was already at the factory and give preference to family, I went there. I entered very young”, says Paula. The couple live in Amareleja, where many other workers of MFS. They built a house in a family plot and they are paying. They have two daughters, of 7 and 14 year old. In deep, a life story much identical to that of other workers, 41 women and 64 men, entres which ten couples. They started new, work gave them sustenance to settle and start a family. “It was a good job and a good salary for the region”, says Paula, concluding: “I'll not get equal pay.”
Forex is a hypothesis, but Paula and David did not want to think about how they will react if this happens daughters. “They have family here, the friends, all.” Paula has a brother in Paris and an uncle and cousins ​​in southern France, where, moreover, have been working. It may be a solution.
Europe is running out of production.
The action is defended, paying wages until the process is completed. And noting that the market is delivered to the Chinese trade, making it virtually non-existent in the EU, even in Germany, Europe's leading country in the production of solar panels. company source told DN that negotiated unsuccessfully for two years to get an investor to MFS. explain: “The production of photovoltaic panels is concentrated in Asia, especially na China, and it is now no longer possible to manufacture panels competitive in Europe, especially after the abolition of customs duties in the EU on imports of photovoltaic equipment that geographical area. When we build the factory – in 2008 -, the market environment was very different and we saw a future. The evolution of the world market, with a spectacular fall in the prices of modules and a concentration of production in Asia, completely changed this perception.”
The truth is that closed the factory when it was over the compulsory period to guarantee employment to over a hundred people. They argue: “The company has fulfilled all its commitments to national and local authorities, keeping factory activity for ten years with over one hundred employees, by two investors that have managed consecutively. always paid wages, even when production was stopped. The last investor announced 10 September 2018 – seven days after the EU eliminate tariffs on imports from China panels – that definitively ended the activity in Moura and it would move production to factories in Asia. Along 2018 we tried to negotiate the entry of a third investor and, in the situation, there was no other option but to close.”
The local authority has accompanied the process, since the dismissal of 105 people is “and determining a major concern for the municipality”, says Alvaro Sour. “We tried to understand the fluctuations in the company's life and it was important to alert the government to the possibility of the plant closing in 2018, when it finished the compulsory period to keep 105 work posts. Members of the region were aware of the problem. In 2017, the factory had the visit of the Chinese Ambassador and then Secretary of State for Energy (Ascenso Simões), We believed he had another outcome”, justifies the Mayor.
“Poor and without benefactors”.
Also the workers believed that the factory had continued, not least because just last year bought machines. And they ensure that a quality product. “Our team had never done panels, He learned and adapted very well. No one was better”, Milton ensures Raymond. Now I do not believe in the reversal of the process: “an investor is difficult to want to stay with the facilities and 105 workers.”
The equipment was the Jinko, that have taken. Since the facilities are Acciona. Sour Ãlvaro says that the camera has received proposals from interested parties and that want to know better for forwarding to Acciona. He presented the issue to the Secretary of State for Energy, John Galamba, who admits monitor the situation, but refers the matter to the Deputy Minister and Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira. His office says are watching, no details.
Moura is a poor, with little support county, same formal. Alvaro Sour complains, for example, seeing rejected proposals to occupy unemployed through job-insertion contract.
It turns out to be the church to support those most in need, especially elderly. “Moura is a typical municipality of Alentejo: there is no investment. There is much talk in developing the interior, but politicians do exactly the opposite of what they say. We are next to Spain, Alqueva brought many tourists and then there is infrastructure. The only industry we had was a solar panel factory. Are a hundred people who go to unemployment and, even if you do not put into question the survival, puts into question the human dignity”, José Manuel regrets or parent. It says that the parish is like the county, “poor and without benefactors”. They created a food bank with the money of alms, donations accounted 4 581,88 euros em 2018.
Photo: © Paul Spranger / Global Images
