Job

Electrolux, Mimit studies a new starting point

Workers' protests in front of all production sites. Urso summons company, trade unions and local institutions: 'Confident that we will succeed in resolving the dispute by limiting production and employment impacts'

by Cristina Casadei

13 May 2026

Operai in sciopero nello stabilimento Electrolux di Cerreto d'Esi in provincia di Ancona dopo l'annuncio dell'azienda di voler chiudere il sito nell'ambito di un piano complessivo da 1.700 esuberi. (Ansa)

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

The home appliance crisis
Manager availability
In less than two years two major reorganisations
Partnership with Midea
The establishments
The latest investments in Italia
Crisis management

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

'The plan presented by the company is unacceptable'. The day after the announcement of 1,700 redundancies by Electrolux, the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, convened 'the company, trade unions and the regions for 25 May to address this crisis as well'.

The home appliance crisis

The production of household appliances and their innovation over time have a history that is strongly intertwined with that of industry in our country. Over the past two decades, however, it has been progressively eroded by the advance of Asian manufacturers, who play a different league, especially in terms of costs and regulations. In China they do not even know what most of the EU environmental regulations are, the cost of labour is certainly not comparable to that of Italy, nor to that of any other European country, as are the cost of energy and raw materials, all factors that put together are capable of generating the perfect storm that blows up companies' accounts at a time when the average consumer in Europe does not have sufficient budget to spend on premium level appliances. According to Urso himself, the crisis in the household appliance sector "is also the result of the perverse and ideological choices of the Green Deal, which have exposed the market and European production to wild and unfair competition from China". This is why the minister is calling for a review of European rules: 'I have already put the subject of household appliances to the relevant commissioners, because I believe that this sector is also strategic and Europe cannot give it up.

Associative support and availability of managers

The President of Confindustria Venesto Est, Paola Carron, says: 'We are closely following and supporting the company in identifying the most appropriate solutions. The convening of the crisis table at Mimit is a good thing. The situation concerning Electrolux represents "an issue of absolute importance for employment and for the entire manufacturing system in Veneto. For this reason we are following the evolution of the affair with great attention, supporting the company in identifying the most appropriate solutions that can allow a recovery of efficiency and at the same time reduce the social impact". It is fundamental that at Mimit "a serious and transparent confrontation between the company, institutions, and social partners is opened, in order to clarify the group's industrial prospects and protect employment, skills, and production capacity. As Confindustria Veneto Est we will continue to closely follow all developments, urging at the same time a serious and not procrastinable reflection on the conditions of competitiveness of our country and Europe in general. The president of Federmanager, Valter Quercioli, speaks of an 'unacceptable production reorganisation in terms of merit and method', especially because 'the production of household appliances has been a central asset of our production fabric for decades and for years now has been suffering from a widespread crisis throughout Europe due to a structural drop in demand and, at the same time, the need to cope with the continuous increase in energy and raw material costs. In this framework, structural interventions to support the sector, at national and EU level, are no longer postponable, capable of providing concrete answers with which to face the growing global competitive pressure'. As a manager, Quercioli adds that he is willing 'to make our contribution to defining an industrial plan to restore profitability that is not only based on cuts but has its focus on advanced research and high added value production'.

In less than two years, two major reorganisations

In less than two years, the second major crisis in the household appliance sector arrived at Mimit, after that of Beko, which had opened with almost 2,000 redundancies and closed with an agreement in April 2025 in which there were 700 fewer redundancies and 300 million in investments in our country. Having closed one dispute, that of Beko, with the last adjournment meeting, which took place at the end of April, at Mimit we start again with another dispute, that of Electrolux, which is reorganising its activities around the world, as well as in Italia, and focusing on international partnerships, including Asian ones.

The partnership with Midea

According to information released by the multinational company itself, a plant in Santiago, Chile, and the Hungarian plant were recently closed, while the one in Anderson, South Carolina, currently continues to produce refrigerators. In the next few months, by July 2026, this production will be discontinued, to be replaced by that of washing machines, as early as the first half of 2027: the changeover will take place as part of the joint venture with the Chinese Midea group, 55% managed by the Swedish multinational and 45% by the Chinese group.

The factories

For Italia, the multinational, at least officially, has never spoken to the unions about volumes, let alone volumes and employment site by site. The only certainty is the closure of the site in the Marche region of Cerreto d'Esi, from which almost 80,000 high-end cooker hoods are produced per year and 158 people are employed. Yesterday at the entrance to the plant there was much disbelief and anger at the announcement of a closure that comes just a few weeks after the planned targets were reached. Planned, however, many months ago and no longer sufficient to consider the site strategic and sustainable. As for the others, there will be a progressive streamlining that will spare no one: at Susegana, in Veneto, 1,100 people work producing built-in refrigerators, at Porcia there are 1,300 people engaged in the production of washing machines and washer-dryers, at Forlì where they make hobs and ovens there are 950, at Solaro just over 700 are engaged in the production of dishwashers, and finally there are 158 at Cerreto d'Esi. All in all, including the management centres, the multinational company employs about 4,500 people in our country and has made significant investments not so long ago.

The latest investments in Italia

Let us recall a couple of them, which took place after two very hard-fought trade union agreements that provided for a significant improvement in productivity. In 2023 Electrolux invested 102 million euros on the dishwasher production lines in Solaro, and in the same year it invested another 110 million euros in Susegana, after 130 million euros four years earlier. This has made the sites more competitive, but not enough on the international chessboard, where the partnership with the Chinese of Midea appears instead to be central. It envisages three joint ventures, two productive and one commercial, and concerns from the geographical point of view only North America (United States and Canada), and from the point of view of products, refrigerators and washing machines.

Crisis Management

Given also the handling of the Beko table, Minister Urso says he is confident that a solution can be found: 'We hope that this will be yet another crisis that we resolve, because when we came to government there were over 50 crisis tables with about 80,000 workers at risk. We have resolved over 40 of them and today the crisis tables are greatly reduced'. Urso also claims the ministry's work in other industrial dossiers: 'We have always protected the workers and also the production plants. This was also demonstrated by the Whirlpool-Beko case: we solved it by protecting the workers and all the Italian production sites, while the same company was closing plants in Poland and Great Britain'. The minister also mentions other disputes such as Piaggio Aerospace and La Perla, which seemed impossible but in the end found a new starting point.