As the Fiat Group and several
of the leading unions sign up to new working practices and contracts at
the company's Pomigliano d'Arco factory the FIOM
metalworkers union, which has roundly rejected the new
contracts, has called an eight hour strike for January
28.Fiat sees
the new labour agreements, which will tackle areas such
as absenteeism and the right to strike along with
bringing in increased shifts and sweeping new working practices
as being essential to making its Italian factories
competitive and in particular the troublesome Alfa Romeo factory at
Pomigliano d'Arco near Naples. Around 4,600 workers will
be bound by the new contracts which were finally signed on
Wednesday and will take the plant for the first time outside
of Italy's normal
union and workers' rights framework.
FIOM now stands alone
in fighting against the new agreement, a story which is
also the case at the Mirafiori factory in Turin, and the
metalworkers' union Secretary General Maurizio Landini
has quickly called for an eight-hour category-wide
strike which is set for January 28. The strike is in
protest against the signing of the deal and was
announced during the meeting of the Confederation's
Central Committee which was convened to discuss the
spiraling situation at Fiat. A series of local
demonstrations has also been proposed by FIOM, which
represents around 12 percent of the Fiat workforce, to
take place at the same time as the strike.
Landini has taken a
hard line stance against the changes proposed by Fiat,
which has seen much rhetoric on both sides. Fiat has
threatened to remove production from Italy while Landini
described Fiat's plans as being "an anti-union,
anti-democratic, authoritarian initiative which is
without precedent in our country." In a TV interview
Landini added: "They [Fiat] want people to accept the
idea that we have to cancel contracts, cancel rights and
even cancel out free unions from the factories in order
to have investments, but this is false."
Meanwhile some voices
has been lined up against FIOM and broadly in support of
Fiat's plans which are seen by many in Italian business
circles as being necessary to reform the country's
labour laws which are perceived to be somewhat outdated
and hindering the country's competitiveness. Luigi
Angeletti, the boss of UIL told the La Stampa
newspaper: "FIOM has been a political organisation for
more than ten years and it acts like that when it
pretends to be a union." He has also criticised the CGIL
confederation for not facing the realities of the modern
labour scene.
Yesterday both Italian
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Umberto Bossi, the
leader of the Northern League party which is junior
government coalition partner, commented on the
Pomigliano d'Arco agreement.
"It would be
best if Fiat does not go abroad; at the end, reality
dictates what's new," said Bossi, who is the Minister of
Federal Reforms, about the plans for the Naples factory
where Fiat will build the next-generation Panda when
asked by a group of journalists at Ponte di Legno
yesterday. "The company has a problem but so do the
workers. Why did they vote in favour? Reality tells us
that we must change the rules."
Meanwhile, cooperation among entrepreneurs and employees
is the right path to follow, believes Berlusconi. He
welcomed the deal signed by entrepreneurs and trade
unions at Pomigliano and yesterday underlined, "that the
Fiat pattern is a symbol which proves that if there is
cooperation between entrepreneurs and workers, instead
of social conflicts, plants can be kept up, jobs can be
ensured and workers' salaries and wages can be
increased."
