Metal Die unionist and former leader Manuel Gallardo Seat – Newspaper

Metal Die unionist and former leader Manuel Gallardo Seat – Newspaper

Sunday, December 14, 2014 – 13.12 h

The former leader of UGT in the company Seat and in the metal sector Manuel Gallardo has died at the age of 72, according to information the union. The death has occurred only 13 days after the Government grant him Medal of Merit at Work President Macia for their role and contribution in industry and labor relations in some decisive moments for the sector in Catalunya.

Manolo Gallardo, as he was known in the union, had a key role Seat and metallurgical sector during the decades of the 90s and 2000. Born in Ecija (Sevilla), Seat joined when I was 30, in full union agitation and politics during the last years of Franco. Three years later, in 1975, affiliated to the UGT and into the executive of the union section in Seat, a leader in the labor movement of Francoism and transition. After being chosen as Secretary General of UGT in Seat in 1980, he became president of the council in 1983, he held until 1998 when he jumped at number one in the Federation of Metal union in Catalunya. He resigned to retire in 2007.

During his career he had to deal with the crisis lasts Seat early 90s and wave of closures and relocations industrial the past decade. It was Pioneer in modernizing labor relations in Seat and the metal with the application of innovative approaches such as replacement contracts and partial retirement. He himself became a retired partial in his later years as a worker in Seat, which devoted a month of work per year to be replaced by a young man with relief contract of a veteran. The other major automakers followed suit and introduced the same formula.
He was also one delos drivers of the presence of Seat in the European and global committee Volkswagen and one of the architects Fusion federations metal, construction and other productive sectors. During his term as head of the Federation of Metal, Construction and Allied Workers (MCA), was one of the dirigenes weight of the executive of Josep Maria Alvarez. The union regretted “deeply” Gallardo’s death, which stressed “its firm commitment to the union and the defense of workers in this country.”