Fiat unions and the Italian government are becoming increasingly disgruntled over chief executive Sergio Marchionne’s aggressive decision making, according to media reports in the country.
Marchionne is credited with rescuing Fiat from the brink of bankruptcy in 2005 and has since turned the company around and bought a stake in Chrysler along the way.
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But the Fiat chief is now coming under fire over his “irreversible” decision to shut down the carmaker’s Termini Imerese factory in Sicily.
Workers have called a four-hour strike over that decision for next Wednesday and now Fiat has announced it will halt production at all Italian plants for two weeks from 22 February because of a fall in orders.
Guglielmo Epifani, secretary general of Italy’s largest labor union CGIL, is quoted as saying that the shutdown, which will temporarily lay off 30,000 workers, will “throw fuel on the fire”.
Unions also claim the move is aimed at pressuring the government to extend its scrappage scheme to help stimulate sales.
Fiat said it could return to profit this year, after a heavy loss in 2009, only if European governments continue such incentives.
Economic development minister Claudio Scajola said the decision to temporarily shut down production did not seem appropriate, and expressed surprise at not having been informed of the move.
Marchionne, however, has dismissed the criticism, saying: “We are the biggest investor in Italy but we are not the government.”
The Fiat chief, who is also Chrysler’s CEO, has failed to calm the unions with assurances that he would move the Fiat Panda production line from Poland to Pomigliano, in southern Italy.
