Trade unions to Stellantis: 'More volumes for Italia, a solution for Cassino'

A list of urgencies, demands and weaknesses of Italian Stellantis production, sifted through by the Cisl metalworkers and put down on paper in view of the presentation of the Industrial Plan on 21 May. The initiative promoted by the Fim Cisl national secretariat brought together about a hundred trade unionists, part of the Stellantis Group's national coordination, from all the Group's plants in Italia.

"We ask that the Group confirm its commitment not to close plants, production activities and other Entity activities, and not to resort to unilateral redundancies and job cuts" is the first issue that Fim Cisl national secretary Ferdinando Uliano puts on the table. Weighing on Italy are the low production volumes, although recovering in the first four months of the year, and the critical situation especially for the Cassino plant, awaiting another year of solidarity contracts, but with production and number of employees at a low point.

In this context, the Chinese 'variable' plays an important role, namely the potential expansion of collaboration with Leapmotor outside of Spain and the ongoing talks between the Group led by Antonio Filosa and groups such as Dongfeng for potential joint production in Europe. When announcing last week that Leapmotor's first production in Europe would be assigned to the Zaragoza hub and that it would collaborate on the engineering and development of the new compact SUV for Opel, CEO Filosa declared that the choice "reflects our intention to deepen our partnership and take a further step towards even greater future collaborations". A move that would suggest the possibility of extending industrial collaboration with the Chinese company in which Stellantis has invested with a 21% stake and 51% control of the company that distributes the cars on the European market to other European countries, including Italia.

In essence, the Fim Cisl is asking to go beyond the Italia Plan and expand the industrial allocations to the Group's Italian factories. The list of demands includes the reconfirmation of commitments to develop the design and research of the product lines and production of Italian brands (Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Maserati), as well as commercial vehicles, the strengthening of Italia's leadership through the development and allocation of future engines, and the confirmation to produce Jeep models in Italia, for Europe. The union is therefore trying to raise the bar and call for an extension of the industrial perimeter of the Italia Plan, which alone is not enough to secure the Made in Italy car industry.

For Mirafiori, the Fim Cisl calls for another new consumer model or the development of electric and hybrid car cities as indicated by Europe, while for the world of engineering and design, the request is to recover and relaunch the skills developed in the Fiat Research Centre. For Pomigliano, the point is the production on the STLA Small platform of two new compact models starting in 2028. The thinking, for Melfi, is clear: 'The Jeep Renegade and the 500x were a production success, not least because they covered a consumer segment with a car in a specific segment, with their own iconic brand. It is essential to envisage their development and production continuity in the Italian plants as part of the Stellantis offer'.