Former Unilever plant in Pozzilli, still many knots to unravel on the conversion process

The project ofindustrial reconversion of the former Unilever plant in Pozzilli, in the province of Isernia, is becoming a complex industrial engineering operation, which does not stop with the waiver of the appeal filed against Invitalia by Packaging To Polymers (P2P), the joint venture between the Anglo-Dutch multinational and Seri Plast, a company of the Civitillo Group.

The conditions set by the National Development Agency in support of a total financing of EUR 80.9 million (EUR 79.5 million for production investment, of which 14.7 million non-repayable, and EUR 1.4 million for industrial research, of which 1.2 million non-repayable, ed, starting with the regularisation of the Seri Group companies' debt positions for the subsidised loans granted by the Agency for the acquisitions of Fib (production of lithium modules, cells and accumulators) and Menarini (production of electric vehicles), and the private financial commitment of 27.3 million, 9 of which are earmarked for share capital. If this were not the case, the entire public financing would be skipped and, consequently, the industrial project for the production of plastic bottles, caps, trays and other plastic materials, which is convenient for Unilever itself.

The time for the success of the operation becomes the second discriminating factor. Not only the 120 days imposed by Invitalia on the private party for the financial transactions, but also those of the public bureaucracy required to realise the productive adaptability of the Pozzilli plant, starting from the issue of the AIA, for which, according to the regulations, between 120 and 150 days are required. A time horizon that risks moving forward the timetable presented a few days ago by Vittorio Civitillo, president of the Seri Group, who had set the start-up of P2P production at the first quarter of 2028, thus jeopardising the promise to purchase 65,000 tonnes of polymer for at least five years, plus a further five years with some guarantees for the workers, that Unilever had made when planning to leave the Pozzilli site, even though it had made itself available to share in its reconversion.

Hence Fialc-Cisal's request to the Molise Region for an accelerated procedural process, a sort of fast-track for the granting of the AIA, so 'not to allow bureaucracy to slow down the grounding of capital and the return to work'. "Immediate guarantee instruments are needed for the economic protection of the families of the 58 workers, who have reached the end of their tether after four years of uncertainty and sacrifice," says Antonio Martone, secretary of Cisal Molise.

This will be discussed on 18 February, when the region, Unilever and the trade unions have been summoned by Mimit for a meeting aimed at recourse to the Cigs, all the more important in view of next 1 July, when Unilever will no longer supplement the workers' Cig with 500 euros per month, as was established in the 2021 agreements.