Automotive: Mirafiori close to historic lows, the 'cig' has lasted 17 years

The crisis of the Italian car industry is written in the numbers of Mirafiori and Melfi, the oldest and 'youngest' of the Stellantis plants in Italy. If last year the historic plant in Turin reached 80,000 units, this year, thanks to the collapse in the numbers of the electric Fiat 500 and the end of production of the Maserati Levante, volumes could be between 30 and 40,000 units, approaching the historic low reached between 2013 and 2016 and in 2019.

Today at the Mirafiori coachworks, where the final assembly of the cars - electric Fiat 500 and Maserati GT and GC - takes place, everything is at a standstill until 6 June, not a single model comes off the production lines. The company has opened a window for voluntary redundancies for about a thousand positions: within a week, 300 of the blue overalls have already signed up, and the recruitment of engineers and technicians is also proceeding at a fast pace.

"For Mirafiori we are asking for a model capable of producing volumes, to be placed side by side with current production," recalls Fim-Cisl national secretary Ferdinando Uliano. The metalworkers' unions have been asking the government for an urgent meeting for weeks, and have returned to the issue after the words of Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares during the call dedicated to the collaboration with Leapmotor, during which Tavares ruled out possible industrial spillovers in Italy and Europe for the time being.

'The last good years for Mirafiori,' analyses Edi Lazzi, regional secretary of Fiom of Turin, 'were those between 2006 and 2007, with a production of 218 thousand cars. From 2008 onwards the redundancy fund began and 2024 is the 17th consecutive year of social shock absorbers for the Mirafiori workers, who in the meantime have halved to 12,000'.

What has happened over the years is that Mirafiori has discontinued models, arriving at a 'negative saddle' of 21,000 units produced in 2019, ten times less than the factory's last full capacity phase. 'Outside Mirafiori there has been a real disaster, with the components industry on its knees. According to research carried out by the Fiom of Turin,' adds Lazzi, 'from 2008 to the end of 2023, 500 companies in the engineering sector in the province of Turin alone have closed 35 thousand redundant workers, including downsizing and closures. In this context, the car industry has weighed between 70 and 80 per cent'.