69 open tables at the ministry to resolve ongoing disputes

Between old cases that are still unresolved and new disputes, often the result of disinvestment choices by foreign multinationals, the accounting of company crises continues to divide ministry and unions. On the one hand there is the reconnaissance of the tables managed centrally by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy (Mimit) - 37 active and 32 being monitored - on the other hand there is the census periodically carried out by Cisl and CGIL, which consider a much wider audience, including the dossiers managed at regional level and those under the aegis of the Ministry of Labour. The most recent report, carried out by the CGIL, analyses 'dozens of realities that have simply communicated the closure, without institutional tables ever having been convened', calculating 96 national disputes, involving over 121,000 workers.

Numbers aside, the management of the crisis tables continues to alternate between resolutions and successes and new disposal projects and redundancy plans. In recent years, Mimit has made use of a team of experts - ten consultants specialised in crises and ten in industrial policies - but the appointments have already expired a few months ago and a renewal is conditional on finding resources to cover the fees. At the moment, therefore, MIMIT is only proceeding with its internal unit dedicated to the management of disputes, coordinated at the political level by the undersecretary Fausta Bergamotto.

A quick review of the minutes of the last month gives an idea of the heterogeneity of the open tables. The plan of action presented by the Jsw Italy in Piombino has not convinced the trade unions so far, while in the case of Giano Srl, a paper mill of the Fedrigoni group based in Fabriano, the dismissal procedure has been withdrawn and there is a reallocation plan for 140 of the 173 workers concerned.

There is tension over the future of 600 employees of the Riello, a company specialising in air conditioning systems with plants in Volpago (Treviso) and Legnago (Verona): the ministry has to deal with a possible unexpected sale. The Pmc, an automotive components company that operates in Melfi and is part of the Stellantis supply chain, is in the liquidation phase and there is a commitment to share a reindustrialisation path with Mimit, subject to the arrival of new investors.

The identification of a 'white knight' is the condition that - to tell the truth - unites many of the open tables, including the one for the rescue of the Hiab (goods handling equipment) site in Statte (Taranto) and, in perspective, also the future of Cooper Standard, which has so far averted actions not agreed with the ministry on the Battipaglia site with 375 workers.