On March 31, after running for 165 years, Curtiembre Talca will shut down forever. The owners of the tannery, located in the Chilean small town of the same name, informed the Job Inspectorate that the company’s spaces themselves are for sale. When Curtiembre Talca reached the peak in its history, it hired even 200 employees; at present, they employ around 20 people, who will keep working until the end of the month to handle the last orders. While speaking to tvmaulinos.com, José Faundez, a representative of the trade union, employed in the company for 42 years, made clear that, at this point, bankruptcy is irreversible: “We feel resigned and there is not much we can hope for: things cannot be modified anymore”. Due to the closure of the tannery, the local community is going to lose part of their personal history: “Many people worked here over 165 years – remarked Faundez –, lots of them spent their own lives around these drums, therefore achieving their accomplishments and teaching their sons the leather-tanning job”.
TRENDING