Workers at the Zubieta incinerator report that the company "puts business before safety"

Workers at the Ekobal incinerator in Zubieta (Gipuzkoa) have complained that the company "puts the business before the safety of the workforce." They regret that nine workers were poisoned on 19 August without Individual Protection Equipment (EPI) after a fire was extinguished by inhalation of toxic smoke and breaking emergency hoses.

In a statement, the LAB unionexplained that on 19 August, around 10:30 a.m., Ekobal at the Zubieta plant "becamean extreme danger situation for the working class due toa fire inside the large shredder. "" Once again, the management's response was not to protect people, but to send workers directly to danger, divided into extinction teams as if they were professional firefighters. "

In this regard, LAB has claimed that the workers "faced the flames in an extremely irritating and distressing situation: the hoses and equipped fire hydrants (BIEs) were completely broken and unused. "

In the union's view, "without means, without materials and with a huge lack of foresight on the part of the company, the workers had to put themselves at risk and use a common fire extinguisher hose, which was not used to extinguish industrial fires", so firefighters and health workers had to attend to nine workers after intense poisoning from toxic fumes caused by the combustion of garbage .

The union has stressed that "sending workers to put out fires without EPIs or specific training is not an isolated event," but " a routine and reckless activity at the Ekobal plant whenever there is fire. "

Finally, it calls for "an immediate investigation of the reported facts, accountability and a halt to any activity that does not comply with the strict security guarantees established by law.