The Women's Democratic Movement today considered that the closure of the Ecco footwear factory in Santa Maria da Feira constitutes a "social drama" that will mainly harm workers, who are mostly among 632 workers.
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06/11/2026
by
Lusa
Democratic Movement
O Women's Democratic Movement today considered that the closure of the Ecco footwear factory in Santa Maria da Feira constitutes a "social drama" that will mainly harm workers, who are mostly among 632 workers.
“ This decision has a dimension that cannot be ignored: the overwhelming majority of the people affected are women”, said the civic association founded in 1968 and independent of political parties for whom, “in a territory where female industrial employment is fundamental for the economic autonomy of women and for the sustainability of families, the closure of this unit represents a severe blow to workers’ rights and the local economy”.
Calling for answers to help Ecco’s future unemployed at the level of “professional requalification, job support and adequate social protection”, the movement warned that the problem of women involved in the process will be aggravated by the fact that in this factory in the district of Aveiro have been working “several couples, so collective redundancy affects entire families at once, with alarming social proportions”.
“The impact is not limited to the loss of income”, highlighted the civic structure. “It may undermine family stability, access to housing, health, education and dramatically affect the region’s own social fabric,” he concluded.
On Monday, Ecco Portugal communicated to 632 workers in its 22 departments the “total and definitive” closure of this unit, which, since 1984 in the parish of São João de Ver, was the first that the Danish footwear brand opened outside its home country.
The measure was framed in a “wider restructuring of Ecco’s global productive structure”, with the aim of adapting the brand’s production capacity “to the current and expected needs of the business”.
This international restructuring will also involve the closure of the factory that Ecco has in Vietnam and could also go through “a reduction of around 400 jobs in the regional and global functions of the Group, including in Denmark”.