Sider Alloys, the alarm goes up: two managers and workers away at the meeting

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Tension is rising at Sider Alloys, the Italian-Swiss company that took over the Portovesme plants from Alcoa, with the unions and workers pressing the Ministry of Industry and Made in Italy. Objective: to convene an institutional meeting shortly. At the center of the mobilization is the failure to relaunch the entire industrial complex in which, until the plant was shut down in 2012, 150 thousand tons of primary aluminum for ingots and billets were produced.

«In recent days there have been the resignations of two managers – says Roberto Forresu, regional secretary of Fiom – and today the situation is worrying, industrial relations are reduced to the bare bones and we still don’t know what the future of this factory will be». Precisely for this reason, in recent days the trade union organizations convened a meeting in which the concern was reiterated and the state of agitation confirmed.

Questions regarding guarantees and relaunches

One of the issues to be resolved and on which the unions are asking for intervention from the Government which, as Forresu underlines, «is part of the shareholding structure through Invitalia with 20%» is that of the relaunch plan and the Sace guarantees. “We would like to understand what stage the procedure is at and above all to know the plans for the future – he adds – and therefore the prospects for workers and production”.

Electrolysis room node

Inside the industrial complex, in which various works have been carried out and other renovation and arrangement interventions have been carried out, the foundry remains active at the moment. This is a piece of the larger mosaic which also includes the restart of the electrolysis room. «This is the most important part – says Forresu – because it is the room that gives life to the primary aluminium. And our request concerns precisely this aspect.”

170 million project

The project carried out by Sider Alloys, which took over from Alcoa six years ago, involves the arrangement of the plants and the restart of production with an investment plan of 170 million euros and the employment of around 400 people. «Today there are just under 100 employees inside the factory – adds Forresu – the last three fixed-term contracts expire these days. Over the course of a year, around one hundred people remained outside.”