Automotive, one thousand workers involved in Turin in the latest company crises

For every industrial crisis that is resolved, there are at least three or four that open up in the automotive sector in Piedmont. Closed with the acquisition by the Zetronic Group the dossier of the former Lear, frozen for years after the stop to the production of seats for Maserati, emerges the potential crisis of Hanon Systems (electric systems for the automotive industry), after the announcement by the owners of the intention to move to China the main production historically assigned to the factory of Campiglione, in the Turin area.

A total of one thousand workers are involved in the latest auto industry disputes at the Piedmont Region and Mimit tables. To the 500 of Hanon Systems, part of the Korean Hankook & Company Group, must be added the 150 workers of Primotecs, at risk of closure and in the meantime stricken by the reduction, from 12 to six months, of the period covered by the redundancy fund, with an expiry date in June, and the 300 of Magna Lighting Olsa, sold to the Germans of Mutares 'without any guarantee for the workers' say the metalmechanical unions.

Among the historical companies in the area that have gone into crisis in recent months is Petronas in Villastellone, for which, after weeks of meetings and mediations, an agreement was signed for 60 redundancies with incentivised exits, out of a total of 470 workers. What caused the heavy case of volumes was the loss of the Selenia order.

The affair of Primotecs in Avigliana, in the Turin area, owned by the German fund Mutares, will end at Mimit, after the closure announcement and the mobilisation put in place by the metalworking unions and the mayors of Avigliana, Buttigliera and Sant'Ambrogio. "Mutares is deliberately choosing to close, after plundering, a company that works," say the unions and administrators.

"The problem will not be solved if the institutions stand by and watch business divestment and acquisition operations without caring about employment and industrial plans," say the workers' representatives. The reference is to other industrial events such as the case of Magna Lighting Olsa, which has 300 employees between Rivoli and Moncalieri, being sold to the same Mutares fund, 'without any kind of guarantee'.