Once again, the penal shield for ArcelorMittal is skipped. After an internal meeting of the majority, the Government decided to give a favorable opinion to the amendment of the M5S that it envisages the suppression of article 14 of the Business Decree which will arrive in the Senate on 22 October. At the basis of the decision there would be the very strong dissents within the Movement, with 17 senators who had threatened not to vote for the measure if there were protections for the leaders of the former Ilva within it.
The government's decision sent the unions into a rage: "The decision to change the penal shield for ArcelorMittal workers again demonstrates a schizophrenic attitude of the Government, which clumsily tries to recover votes on Taranto but actually provides a good one alibi to the company to leave. The electoral flat earth approach to industrial issues is bad for the environment, workers and businesses. A masterpiece". This is the harsh comment of the general secretary of the Fim Cisl, Marco Bentivogli.
“We imagined that the solution found in the company dl could be a point of equilibrium. Questioning it now risks opening up a phase of further uncertainty” said the national secretary of Fiom CGIL, Gianni Venturi. “There is concern. It is not a question of giving immunity nor of impunity but of legal protections that accompany a process of environmental reconversion of the plants ", explained the trade unionist.
As promised by the Government the shield should be remodeled and re-presented through an ad hoc measure in the next weeks. The Government has ensured "timeliness", but the possible reaction of ArcelorMittal, which in the past had threatened to leave Taranto precisely following the cancellation of immunity from the Growth decree (the measure for this reason was then merged into the Business decree), worries the trade unions.
It should be emphasized that Article 14 was already a compromise measure rthan previously provided. In fact, with the business decree, total immunity had not been reintroduced, but a system of "expirable" legal protections linked to compliance with the environmental plan had been guaranteed. Translation: if Arcelor Mittal had complied with the timing, criteria and implementation methods of the environmental plan, it could have benefited from the protections. Protections that today are removed from the Business Decree.
