Credit Curt Prendergast, Nogales International
Employees camp outside Mexican factory to ensure they receive severance pay.
Nogales International on the recent actions taken by former employees of inkjet cartridge remanufacturer Legacy Imaging, which abruptly closed its production factory in Nogales, Mexico after it failed to complete a merger, leaving 134 workers without a job.
According to the article, employees were unaware of the factory’s closure until they arrived at the site for work finding the door locks had been changed. In response, 114 workers camped outside the factory “in groups of 20 or more” to ensure that the machinery they plan to sell to get their severance pay was not removed, with Elsa Valenzuela, who had worked for the company for seven years, commenting “it was wrong what they did with the factory. They said we were like a family, that this was our home […] now we’re just waiting for a response from the company”.
However, Manuel Hopkins, Economic Development Director for the municipal government, said: “Nobody has heard from the owner. They’re gone. They were losing money and they shut down from one day to another.”
Mexican law dictates that the company should be responsible for 90 days pay for each of its permanent employees, and the protesting workers have purportedly said that “they will stay as long as necessary” to get their pay, which they claim should also include 12 days pay for each year worked at the company. Hopkins explained that “if they don’t get paid, they’ll do an embargo of the machinery and assign it to the employees, and then they can sell it […] right now, they cannot sell it until it is authorised”, which he added will depend on the state and federal governments and could take a few months.
The workers have reportedly received support from the Macquiladora Association of Sonora and state representatives, as well as the mayor of Nogales, Ramon Guzman Munoz, who has provided “blankets, portable bathrooms, and gas heaters” for those taking vigil outside the factory.
“We’re all united here. We’re all cooperating,” said Lilia Ruiz, an employee of Legacy Imaging for nine years. “We’ll stay as long as necessary.”
The company’s clients are also reported to be demanding to know where their products are, with a sales representative of the company commenting: “I’ve got 180 clients who are waiting for their product.”