The coronavirus emergency has brought Italy into the most serious crisis since the war. Industry paid the highest price, with production actually halving in March and April according to data from the Confindustria Study Centre. Among the most affected sectors is the steel industry, weighed down by the collapse in steel demand.
But this realityit cannot be an excuse to dismantle the former Ilvathunders Marco Bentivogli and Valerio D'Alò, respectively general secretary and national secretary of the Fim Cisl.
To trigger the reaction of trade unionists the news arrived in the last few days from the various ArcelorMittal production sites. In Novi Ligure, the company has decided to stop the plants due to lack of shipments. Only the finishing and shipping departments will operate, while stocks last. Similar situation also in Genoa, where the French-Indian company has almost completely blocked the production activity due to the cancellation of a series of orders from important customers. The production slowdown also involves the Taranto plant where, according to the unions, contrary to the communications given in the last few days, ArcelorMittal would have unilaterally decided to change the program by stopping plants and widening the number of workers placed on layoffs. The list concludes with the Salerno plant, where production has now stopped since 23 March. The company had assumed a gradual restart from May 4, but to date the situation has remained on standby.
"We need to change course to prevent the Italian steel industry from falling into the abyss”, says Bentivogli who then attacks: “in the ArceloMittal group, the management's inability to manage reigns supreme, which is bringing the plant into jeopardy, with institutional, local and national complicity”.
The picture, according to the unions, is worrying and doubts about ArcelorMittal's production continuity are growing day by day. “The time has come to come out avoiding adding further discontent in an atmosphere already weighed down by the various vicissitudes. The use of layoffs is exploding, we need to stop thinking of the institutions, and of the Mise in this specific case, as a propaganda machine. The crisis management area needs to be strengthened, contrary to what this government has done. It is increasingly frustrating to bring workers into the ministry and find that crisis management work is no longer being done. We ask Minister Stefano Patuanelli to focus on industry and infrastructure with real support for technological and organizational innovation. The ArcelorMittal dispute must be definitively resolved. The hidden management of the dispute has caused only damage. We need to come out into the open ”, concludes the Fim Cisl.
