Fiat union officials, who fear job losses if the company pushes ahead with plans to buy GM Europe’s Opel and Vauxhall operations, are meeting with their German counterparts to discuss the situation.
Analysts have predicted a merger of Fiat and GM Europe operations could lead to the closure of up to six factories in the region, with likely targets plants at San Giorgio Canavese and Sicily’s Termini Imerese, with a combined workforce of about 1,700, along with Opel/Vauxhall operations in Austria, Germany, Poland and the UK.
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Fiom-Cgil official Enzo Masini told Bloomberg News Fiat is the only carmaker in Italy so workers would have no chance of finding another job.
The automaker’s plants in Italy employ 31,000 people and the company so far has not commented specifically on the speculation of factory closures in Italy. CEO Sergio Marchionne last week said his group had no plans to close any of Opel’s four factories in Germany, though he told German daily Bild: “The workforce of course has to be reduced” in order to boost productivity.
But Marchionne late last month did not rule out closing factories in Italy. “I cannot give a reply, either positive or negative,” he told a journalist when asked whether he would give a pledge that no factories would close in Italy.
Last week Italian industry minister Claudio Scajola urged Fiat to meet the government and unions as soon as possible.
The Fiat unions in Italy have said any plant closure would spark a “heavy social conflict” and plan a protest outside company headquarters in Turin on 16 May. Vincenzo Comella, a regional leader of the Uilm union, said that he had been asking the company for months to present a business plan.
The San Giorgio plant produces Alfa Romeo 159 and 147 models while Termini Imerese manufactures the small Lancia Ypsilon. This plant last month received European Union approval for state aid to fund the production of the next generation model.
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