2024-10-18 09:44:00
Thousands of striking employees of the automobile giant Stellantis in Italy demonstrated on Friday to the sound of drums and whistles in the streets of Rome to criticize the “disengagement” of the manufacturer from the peninsula and production in free fall.
The group’s 40,000 employees in Italy as well as the employees of its suppliers were called by the unions to observe a 24-hour national strike to demand guarantees on employment and the production of new models.
According to the unions, who were counting on 15,000 demonstrators, it will be “a historic strike like there has not been in more than forty years” in the factories of the former national flagship Fiat.
The Italian manufacturer merged in 2014 with the American Chrysler before joining forces with the French Peugeot-Citroën (PSA), giving birth in January 2021 to the Stellantis group.
“I only work one or two days a week anymore,” laments Giuseppe Carbonara, 52, from Bari (south-east) and for thirty years an employee in the automotive sector.
“There is no industrial policy in Italy. We ask the government to open consultation with Stellantis,” he argued.
After three years of increase, production of Stellantis in Italy suddenly declined again, falling by 31.7% to 387,600 vehicles over the first nine months of 2024, according to the metallurgy federation FIM-CISL.
– At lowest since 1956 –
Pressured by the nationalist government of Giorgia Meloni, the boss of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, nevertheless committed in July 2023 to increasing production to one million units by 2030, a goal which now seems out of reach.
The cause is the sales of electric vehicles in Europe which have been slipping since the end of 2023, especially due to a lack of affordable models, while Brussels has decreed a ban on the sale of thermal cars by 2035.
Two days before the strike, Stellantis announced that several of its Italian factories would be shut down again in November to regulate production, citing “the drop in orders in the electric vehicle market in Europe”.
In a symbolic act, production of the iconic Fiat 500 in an electric version at the Mirafiori factory, near Turin, was suspended in mid-September until November 1.
– Factories in slow motion –
“The Maseratis, when they make them, it’s only seven a day,” he sighed.
Mirafiori employees have experienced periods of technical unemployment this year due to a drop in demand, but also to the delay in the government’s launch of ecological bonuses for the purchase of electric vehicles.
The general strike “will send a strong and clear message to Stellantis and the government: time is up, the automobile industry is dying, we risk an unprecedented social tragedy”, warned Rocco Palombella, general secretary of the Uilm union .
The rag has been burning for several months between the right-wing and far-right government of Giorgia Meloni and Stellantis, with Rome accusing the Franco-Italian-American manufacturer of relocating its production to low-cost countries, to the detriment of Italian factories.
Summoned in mid-October for a hearing in the Italian Parliament, Mr. Tavares was unable to convince either MPs or unions, by requesting more subsidies and denouncing production costs that were too high in Italy due to the price of energy.
“Mr Tavares says he does not want to leave Italy, but there are no binding commitments or clarity on investments and new models,” regretted Rocco Palombella.
Since the merger between Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat Chrysler in 2021, Stellantis’ workforce in Italy has been reduced by more than 10,000 people.
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