Cars, production -30% in six months. Trade unions towards united mobilisation
Production in Italy fell by 30 per cent in the first half of the year - '25,000 workers are at risk, including those in the supply chain'
3' min read
3' min read
A united demonstration of metalworkers' unions in support of the automotive industry. On Tuesday 24 September, Fim, Fiom and Uilm will present in Rome the initiative, which comes at a very complex stage for the sector, both in Italy and in Europe, in which a slowdown in volumes has been joined in recent months by a sharp slowdown in registrations of electric cars, which have lost a point of market share, despite incentives in countries such as Italy, France and Spain.
At the centre of the initiative is the situation of the Stellantis plants in Italy. 'Investment and new models are needed, but without new social shock absorbers for many Stellantis plants and the allied industries, the risk of redundancies could affect about 25,000 workers', this is the Fim Cisl complaint contained in the document produced by the Stellantis coordination of the Cisl metalworkers.
The sore points
."The situation is critical. In the absence of a clear reversal of direction,' says Fiom in the document presented to the national leadership, 'the industrial and employment outlook risks being compromised overall'. It is inevitable to look with concern at what is happening at the Volkswagen Group, "which, if not adequately addressed," add the CGIL metalworkers, "risks producing a real earthquake for the entire automotive industry on the continent, while in the USA and China defend the industry with very strong investments".
In order to describe the phase that the automotive industry is going through, Fiom lined up three elements: the first is that production in 2024 is in sharp decline and in the first half of the year 30% fewer cars were produced than in the same period last year, all this despite the fact that the government has granted almost a billion euros for purchase incentives. Then there is the use of social shock absorbers. which is growing everywhere. Finally, there is the strategy of reducing the number of employees through redundancy incentives - just under 4,000 until last spring - with the concomitant freeze on new hires.
It becomes indispensable with Stellantis, the trade unionists of Fim analyse, 'to make binding the commitments already made on the new models and the medium and large platforms, and to demand that the small platform and its other models also be allocated in Italy'.
