“Today we are going to talk about a paint company, Vallejo, whose workers are on strike, and what we can do to support them.” This is how the streamer British The Honest Wargamer to his 15,000 Twitch followers. “I’m not going to buy Vallejo paints while they are on strike!” the Englishman Hellstorm Mikey also commented on his YouTube channel. influencer of the world of Warhammer miniatures, to the approval of the majority of his followers.
What began as a partial strike this Monday at the Acrylicos Vallejo paint factory, in the Barcelona town of Vilanova i la Geltrú, has become a cause for numerous fans of miniature painting, specifically those related to war games. either wargames. It is not something coincidental. From its plant in Spain, the Vallejo brand is a world leader in acrylic paints for Warhammer figures, perhaps the most popular in this sector.
Called by the CGT union, it is an indefinite strike lasting two hours per shift – that is, partial – that has so far managed to monitor practically all of its 74 employees. What the staff demands is an improvement in safety and hygiene conditions, which they consider “very poor”, as well as a 15% increase in salary, in accordance with the increase in turnover that they claim the company has experienced since the pandemic caused a new boom of fans of models and model making.
“The facilities are falling apart, the ceiling has holes, and there are machines that are held together with cardboard and tape,” denounces Patricia Pérez, president of the works council. The company plans to open a new plant throughout 2025, with greater production capacity, about two kilometers from the current one. But employees believe it will take longer. “Job security cannot wait,” claims Pérez.
The firm responds that safety is one of its priorities and that is why it invested up to 375,000 euros in 2023 to condition the plant. “In the transitional period until the move to the new factory,” they say in a statement, “the company is providing means to improve the maintenance of the machinery through the hiring of a maintenance manager, as well as making investments to improve production teams.
Regarding salary, they add that the general agreement for the chemical industry sector already contemplates an increase of 10.3%, corresponding to the increase in the CPI between 2021 and 2023, in addition to 3% for 2024. From there, the Management proposes linking other increases “to an improvement in productivity.” But the latter is rejected by employees, who consider that their salaries, of around 20,000 euros per year, are “too precarious” to live in a province like Barcelona, and that the increase should not be conditioned.
A family business in the hands of a fund
The staff also reports that dialogue with the company has deteriorated since it was acquired by a venture capital fund, Proa Capital, at the end of 2023. Until then, Acrylicos Vallejo was considered a family business, run by the Vallejo family. Founded in 1965 in the United States, it moved to Vilanova i la Geltrú in 1969 and has been producing fine art painting since then.
Its great achievement was to position itself as a reference for modeling. Their latest billing data shows that in 2022 they made 17 million euros in sales and closed the year with four million euros in profits. Today they export to 55 countries and fans of Warhammer and its variants around the world know that there are only two major paint brands: Citadel – manufactured by the Warhammer company itself – and Vallejo. “The debate between the two paintings within the world is like that between Apple and Samsung,” summarizes a fan of models and fantastic miniatures.
Millions of colorful bottles leave the Vilanova i la Geltrú warehouse every year and end up on the shelves of stores specializing in miniatures and in the studios not only of Warhammer lovers, but of authentic influencers within this community. Since Monday, the CGT union has received messages from prescribers from countries such as the United States, Brazil, Australia, Sweden, France and the United Kingdom.
Fans between boycott and request for guidelines
Some Warhammer lovers have called for a boycott of Vallejo from their social networks, although the workers, surprised by the avalanche of support, clarify that they are not asking people to stop buying the product. “What we demand is dissemination and that our situation be known so that the company sits down to negotiate,” says Pérez. “At the end of the day, the company is big and has a good reputation,” he adds.
There have been many who on X, Bluesky or Reddit have shown their sympathy for the workers’ demands, in addition to praising the quality of the brand. One of the first was Louise Sugden, graphic designer, youtuber and a well-known figure within the Warhammer universe. “We love your paintings but we like more that your workers have fair wages,” he published this week in X.
Others influencers Within the sector that has supported the labor cause have been the French Cerberus XT or the youtuber Dungeons & Discourse. And Wargamer magazine, one of the best-known in the sector, and the miniature painter also contacted the strikers. Goobertown Brentfrom the Goobertown Hobbies channel, with 250,000 subscribers. “The community of art and hobbies “We see you and value the work you do, we wish you a quick and successful resolution,” the latter stated.
For now, the conflict continues. Company and worker representatives met on Friday at noon at the Department of Labor in a first mediation session that ended without agreement. From Acrylicos Vallejo they insist that their intention is to “dialogue and find a solution” to a strike that they consider “disproportionate.”
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