A series of wildcat strikes has swept across Fiat’s Italian plants today (3 February) as workers downed tools in protest at plans to close the Termini Imerese factory in Sicily.
Some 14% of Fiat’s 32,000 Italian workforce walked out in a bid to halt the shutdown of the Sicily plant slated for December this year.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Fiat wants to transfer production of its Lancia Ypsilon from the Sicily factory where it makes 60,000 units per year, but the plan has provoked the ire of unionised labour.
“It is a one-day strike but this has been going on since Christmas,” a Fiat spokesman told just-auto from Turin. “We had workers chaining themselves to council offices in Palermo for example.
“This plant is a small assembly [unit] in Sicily where we build the Ypsilon. There is little infrastructure so we have to export componentry to the island – we are losing around EUR1,000 (US$1,390) per car. It would be cheaper to send everyone home and keep them on full pay until nearly retirement age.”
Fiat maintains it has “no issue” with the Sicily workforce or the quality of its finished product but “unfortunately, it is located in the wrong place.”
An offer has been made to bring Fiat Panda production from Poland to Italy – “a net gain of around 300,000 units,” but there will nonetheless be some job losses among Termini Imerese’s 1,200 staff.
Fiat is moving Panda production as the Poland plant is “bursting at the seams” and insists it needs to reduce pressure on the factory. “We want to give Poland production of the new Ypsilon,” added the spokesman.
Further comments are expected from the Italian unions involved.
