FIOM, the CGIL-affiliated metal union federation, withheld its support from the agreement with Fiat on Thursday 23 December reached with the unions in view of the company’s 1 billion-euro investment plan for its Mirafiori car plant near Turin in exchange for labour concessions. Fiat plans to assemble up to 280,000 vehicles a year for the Jeep and Alfa Romeo brands as part of a joint venture with American Chrysler. Fiat’s CEO Sergio Marchionne said, “We now need to work on defining a collective agreement specific to the joint venture that will enable workers to transfer to the new Fiat-Chrysler enterprise.” In the negotiations up to the accord Marchionne has caused a lot of irritations, in particular when he threatened to relocate production abroad. The government has accused him of forgetting that Rome has bailed out Fiat in times of trouble, while workers have said they are underpaid, overworked and underappreciated (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 July-August and September 2010).
English: http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Business/Italy-Union-to-strike ...
M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS)