In 2005 the Termini Imerese fcatory in Sicily switched its production focus after more than a decade spent building the Fiat Punto to become the sole manufacturing base for Lancia's Ypsilon (above). Workers protesting over the planned closure of Termini Imerese seven years ago when a decision by the Fiat Group to shut the Sicilian car plant was reversed right at the eleventh hour.

Workers from Fiat's Termini Imerese assembly plant on Sicily have begun a battle for its future survival after it was announced car production is to cease in 2011; it is a fight that the workers know only to well as the factory has been threatened with closure many times in the last decade.

Last Thursday the news that the factory which is located near Palermo on the north coastline of Sicily had dreaded. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne finally outlined a medium-term production plan for the Group once the dust had settled on the so-far abortive bid to buy GM Europe's Opel/Vauxhall division; and while all the other Italian factories will survive, including the threatened Pomigliano d'Arco factory near Naples that builds several Alfa Romeo models, Termini Imerese won't. The statement said that at Termini Imerese "production of [the Lancia] Ypsilon (with Euro 5 engine) [is] confirmed until 2011; industrial presence to be maintained with non-automotive production activities; necessary to review Programme agreement on the basis of the new activities."

Workers fear that once car production ends in two years time with the ending of the life-cycle of the current-generation Lancia Ypsilon that will spell a gradual rundown of the plant. Fiat has tried many times to close the factory which due to its remote location on Sicily means that it costs around 1,000 euros a car more to produce vehicles at the plant than at any of Fiat's other Italian factories. In 2002 a decision to close Termini Imerese was reversed right at the eleventh hour. However for the impoverished island, Termini Imerese represents a real manufacturing lifeline and the consequences for the local economy and unemployment rates would be devastating if the factory is eventually run down.

Termini Imerese opened in 1970 and in almost four decades it has built many highly successful Fiat models including the tiny 126 and the last-generation Panda. More than two million of the latter model were built over almost a decade and a half. In 1993 the factory started building the Fiat Punto through two generations, before in 2005 it switched focus to become the sole production base of the Lancia Ypsilon. A year later a red-and-black "bi-color" Ypsilon MomoDesign had the privilege of becoming the four millionth car to roll out off the end of its assembly lines. The next Ypsilon model will be built on a redeveloped version of the current Panda's architecture and there has been much speculation that this new model could instead be built alongside the Panda at its sole global home at Tychy in Poland.

According to the AGI news agency yesterday: "They promised they would fight back, from the beginning of this week. And they are doing so. Blue-collars from the Fiat plant of Termini Imerese and its ancillary industries started off this Monday morning with a two-hour strike that should end at 9.30 am. But today's protest against the decision by Fiat's management to end production in the Sicilian car manufacturing plant may go well beyond that. Workers are not going to stop at blocking the assembling line. At the moment, in fact they are walking under the pouring rain and arriving at nearby train station of Fiumetorto, to block railway traffic. Almost a garrison, that is aiming to increase the intensity of the protest. The tension is high amongst the almost 2,000 workers that do not believe in a future without the car industry. Between shouts and anger, a new hard-line of the protest is beginning and it resembles, in tones and methods, the clashes that stopped the plant from closing, seven years ago, when the decision seemed almost sealed and inevitable," said AGI.

"As we did back then [in 2002]," Roberto Mastrosimone, a representative of the trade union FIOM CGIL told reporters yesterday, "we will again stop the plans of those that want to penalise once again Termini Imerese. We are beginning with a strike and blocking the railway lines, but we will not stop at that," he added. Today, the long-awaited Regional meeting, between Raffaele Lombardo and the trade unions, will take place, with the aim of establishing a common position and drawing up a document to present to Sergio Marchionne.