Steel Industry

Former Ilva, Urso: the Taranto public prosecutor's office has put reconversion at risk. New with the unions on Monday

Former Ilva workers on strike occupy the state road in Taranto

21 May 2025

Ex Ilva, Mantovano: "Socio privato ci lascia eredità pesante che stiamo gestendo"

3' min read

The Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso returns to harshly criticise the judiciary over the former Ilva: 'The decision of the Taranto prosecutor's office puts the environmental reconversion process of the Taranto site at risk. Both for the economic sustainability of the plant, and for the ongoing negotiations with the companies that took part in the tender procedure, which find themselves with different conditions to those contracted, and above all for the significant direct and indirect employment impacts," he said in response to a question time at the Chamber of Deputies.

In the meantime, a round table with the trade unions was held at Palazzo Chigi, during which Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano admitted: 'Needless to say, the timing of this meeting is particularly dramatic, certainly one of the most dramatic, if not the most dramatic at all, since we started seeing each other.

A meeting that did not satisfy the unions. "The table did not go well, we asked for guarantees but there were no adequate answers, that is why we decided together to adjourn the table," said Rocco Palombella (Uilm-Uil) as he left Palazzo Chigi.

Urso: new table on former Ilva on Monday at the labour ministry

Responding in question time in the Chamber of Deputies, Minister Urso said: 'The table will be reconvened on Monday at the Ministry of Labour.

Turning to what was said at Palazzo Chigi, Mantovano said: 'I do not remember easy moments, the path has always been particularly complicated' and 'our parameters from the outset in this assessment have been those agreed, that is, guaranteeing the future of steel, guaranteeing employment as much as possible, guaranteeing the maintenance of the ancillary industries and before all this the safety of working conditions.

And again: 'It would be tempting to say that the protests, which are more than justified, should be addressed to offices other than Palazzo Chigi or Via Veneto or the Ministry of Labour headquarters. But that was by no means the intention, because here we take full responsibility for governing this crisis,' the undersecretary added at the meeting after the incident a fortnight ago. 'We are concerned but not resigned, we do not shy away from responsibility,' he emphasised, and 'we must find ways out'.

Striking former Ilva workers occupy state highway in Taranto

While the meeting at Palazzo Chigi was in progress, a few dozen workers and union delegates from the former Ilva plant in Taranto occupied a section of the Appian state highway near the steel plant on the occasion of a four-hour strike. Some protesters lay down on the asphalt. The blockade was removed after about an hour and a half and led to inevitable traffic disruptions. Upon learning of the conclusion of the Roman summit, the metalworking unions decided to break off the mobilisation and inform the workers of the outcome. The protest had been carried out because the demonstrators were unable to follow the meeting with the government live as the link provided would not work. A big screen had been set up in front of the management gatehouse. The metalworkers' unions maintain that they have 'requested several times and in all the institutional venues to receive clear and definitive answers on the destiny of the former Ilva' while 'a disastrous picture of the company and employment situation is being seen'.