The combative Fiom union
intends to challenge the new contracts, that Fiat has
pushed on workers at its Mirafiori and Pomigliano d'Arco
plants, in the courts in Turin, as the bitter divide
between the carmaker and the union shows no sign of
bridging. According to the
Reuters news agency, Maurizio Landini announced the
union's decision to take the ongoing dispute to the
courts in a statement issued yesterday. "Fiom will
appeal to Turin magistrates to nullify the effects of
the accords at the Pomigliano and Mirafiori plants,"
said Landini. The new contracts fall outside established
Italian labour laws.
Fiat has imposed new
contracts in workers at the threatened factories at
Mirafiori in Turin and Pomigliano d'Arco in Naples,
offering new production opportunities in exchange for
significant changes to working contracts in key areas
such as extending shift hours, tackling absenteeism,
limiting striking and reducing breaks.
At the Alfa Romeo
factory, which is winding down assembly of the models
currently produced, Fiat offered the next-generation
Panda and all the unions bar Fiom accepted the terms
with the vote being two-thirds in the carmaker's favour.
At the Mirafiori factory Fiat management offered
proposed future D-segment and SUV vehicles for Jeep and
Alfa Romeo, with workers again voting in to accept and
Fiom standing against, although this time the ballot
result was much closer.
The new plans are part
of Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne's Fabbrica Italia
(Italian Factory) project which aims to raise Italian
total production from 650,000 units to 1.4 million by
2014, although the sums committed so far (800 million
euros at Pomigliano d'Arco and 1 billion euros at
Mirafiori) are just a fraction of the claimed 20 billion
euro investment pot, a sum which in reality Fiat could
never raise. Fabbrica Italia has raised much
skepticism with the unions and earlier this month the
Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL) Secretary
Susanna Camusso said: "We want to know about Fiat's
industrial plan. We have no information about it. They
tell us that it is the workers who are the problem, but
in fact it is the industrial plan itself." She was
speaking in response to the continuing steep decline in
Fiat's domestic car sales, albeit dragged down in a
great part by a declining market. Ms Camusso also noted:
"The lack of an authoritative government [in Italy]
means that businesses have to make questionable
choices."
