Notable Vallejo miniature and hobby painters win salaries and safety appointments
After 26 days of escalating actions, striking employees of Catalan paint manufacturer Acrylicos Vallejo have achieved important victories at the negotiating table. Vallejo produces the Game Color and Model Color line paints most commonly used for miniatures and wargames. According to a message on the Bluesky page of the Catalan labor organization CGTA tentative agreement has been signed that guarantees workers a salary increase, a parenting assistance package, new workplace harassment protocols and improvements to workplace safety.
As previously reported by Polygon, nearly all 85 employees had begun a 16-day partial work stoppage in late November before escalating to a full strike on December 11 – a year after Vallejo was bought by investment firm ProA Capital for just under $53 million. In the days leading up to this announcement, Patricia Pérez, president of CGT’s works council, described the alleged actions of Vallejo management over the past year in an article first published in Catalan by Poder Popular and commissioned by English translation by Rascal News.
According to Pérez, the alleged conditions at the Vallejo factory were not only dangerous, but also not in accordance with Spanish law. In addition to a lack of showers for workers (a requirement for companies handling hazardous chemicals) and machinery in disrepair, Pérez claimed that panels of the factory ceiling were often broken and falling, allowing rain to fall onto the factory floor. The translation describes a so-called “authoritarian” work environment, with unreasonable expectations for employee productivity, which led CGT to file a lawsuit against Vallejo management. Pérez also claimed that the company’s safety protocols are “biased” and “portray victim(s) of harassment as the perpetrator.” One employee, who filed a complaint against the company, was reportedly fired three days later for “low productivity.”
Pérez told Poder Popular that the industrial action had prompted Vallejo management to “put aside all discussions about productivity” and start “real negotiations.” Although these initial wage proposals were presented as ‘minimal’ in the Poder Popular article, the final agreements announced in the CGT social post include: a salary increase of up to €3000 per year, a social paternity package of €500 for the birth of per child, with €200 education allowance for each child under the age of 25 – an amount that must be multiplied by 1.5 for single-parent families.