Word: elisardo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Bilbao. Governor Riestra got a welcome assist from the unpredictable Spanish climate. Heavy rains broke the months-old drought; hydroelectric stations started humming. Workers recently laid off went back to their jobs-but not at Euskalduna. The steel plant's blustering, belligerent manager, Elisardo Bilbao, an employer misplaced from the 19th century, posted a notice in the Plaza de la Misericordia. It said: all those who struck are fired...
Governor Riestra called in Don Elisardo: "Listen here, that notice has got to come down. Your men are ready to give up. It is our duty to encourage them...
...Elisardo: "I can't take back that bunch of rioters...
Next morning the notice had gone, and another was in its place: "Workers needed immediately." Another sign promised that the plant would henceforth operate full scale and that workers would be paid for overtime and piecework. Haughty Don Elisardo took back the 1,400 hungry, silent men in black berets who had dared to strike against him. But he had a triumph anyway: he called them all "new employees." Every striker was penalized by losing his seniority-a man with 40 years' service was hired on the same basis as any young lad just out of school...
Next morning 5,000 Euskalduna workers, defying Spain's drastic laws against industrial strikes, stood at their machines, silent and unbudging. Escorted by armed guards, Don Elisardo strode among the workers, cursing and threatening. Silently they stared back at him, and would not work. Three truckloads of guardsmen drew up and drove the workmen from the plant. Sixteen of them were bundled into a Black Maria...