The analysis of the Fim Cisl National Secretary Ferdinando Uliano on the production trend of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in the first half of 2017.
The production data for the first half of 2017 of the FCA final plants confirm the positive trend of production volumes achieved in 2016. In the first half of 2017, +48.666 cars were produced compared to the same period of 2016. The production increase was determined in largely from the growth in the production of the Alfa Romeo brands, the Stelvio and Giulia SUVs, and the Maserati Levante SUV. In particular, an increase of 44.367 for the two new Alfa Romeos produced at the Cassino plant and 14.717 for Mirafiori. In both situations we are facing a doubling of production compared to the volumes of the previous semester.
It is now very probable that the volumes of 2016, which had seen the quota of over 1 million cars being exceeded also considering the commercial vehicles of Fiat Professional, will be exceeded even further – explains Ferdinando Uliano, Fim-Cisl national secretary in charge of the automotive sector – with positive effects on employment and profitability thanks to the greater weight of premium brands.
Pre-crisis volumes are largely achieved with an increase in volumes of over 70% in the last 4 years.
The trade union strategy that we have adopted, that is to make agreements that lead to investments in Italian plants, has had a positive effect on employment and is going in the direction we hoped for with the completion of the 2014-2018 plan.
Today we are not yet at full employment which, according to the objectives, will be there by 2018; it is almost there, and it is still necessary to make some important investments in the coming months to achieve it.
We would have seized it a long time ago if we had been able to distribute the new occupation of over 2014 units in 2016-3.000 in a uniform manner across all the Italian plants. Obviously this is not possible because the increases in employment normally follow the investments in the various plants. This was the case for hiring in Melfi and in other plants, it is also the same for the more than 730 new arrivals at Cassino, a real increase in employment that cannot go towards reducing the use of shock absorbers at Mirafiori and Pomigliano.
The use of social shock absorbers (solidarity contract and/or Cigo) is further decreasing, particularly in the final factories. The production stoppage we estimate is around 8% of productive hours, very far from the figure of just 4 years ago where peaks of 40% were reached.
The employment situation 4 years ago was very worrying, we believed and bet on this plan and today the numbers prove us right. Even the skeptics and opponents of the time changed their minds. Our contractual trade union action aimed at improving the organization of work, recovering efficiency in the Italian plants and conversely, committing the FCA group to invest in the Italian plants, changing the types of production by increasing the premium share of the new models, was the way which allowed us to save one of the most important sectors of our economy. If our country's production figures show signs of growth in recent years, they owe it to the automotive sector.
The data on half-yearly productions is not only of quantity, but also of quality. The share of the medium-high segment grows further. The medium-high range cars produced in 2012 represented only 20% of volumes, while in 2016 it stood at an excellent 59% of volumes, in the first six months of 2017 it even exceeded 60%. And this figure is continuing to grow because both the productions of Cassino and Mirafiori continue to grind volumes. (as per attached graph).
mirafiori
In the first six months of the year, Mirafiori increased by 2016% compared to 118, going from 12.474 cars to 27.191. A doubling of production driven by the production of the new SUV Maserati Levante. Productions that Mirafiori hadn't seen for 5 years.
2017, with the production of the first Maserati model already produced in the month of January, in two shifts, with a daily production of around 150 units, will go well beyond the volumes of 2012 where Musa and Idea were produced.
Production of the Levante SUV stood at around 18.570 units compared to 4.654 in 2016. A good result was also achieved by the small Alfa Romeo Mito, with its 8.621 vehicles, exceeding the 10.2 half-year figure by +2016%.
These volumes have further reduced the impact of the Solidarity Contract on the workforce. On average there are about 500 people in solidarity.
The departure of the second model for Mirafiori in the second half of 2018 is essential to complete the full employment step and determine a very probable entry of new hires.
Casino
After 5 years, in February we put an end to the use of social safety nets in the Cassinese plant. If 2016 represented for FCA the relaunch of the Alfa Romeo brand and the concrete production implementation of the 2014-2018 industrial plan, with approximately 5 billion intended for the Italian plants. 2017 saw the production of the first SUV in the history of Alfa Romeo alongside those of Giulia.
Following the departure of the second shift on the Giulia and Stelvio line, the return of all workers was determined and an increase in production workers of over 1.000 units, 330 coming on temporary mission from Pomigliano and 730 new young people hired on temporary contracts.
The administration contracts expired on 30 June 2017 and we extended them until 31 October 2017. The objective we have as FIM-CISL is to stabilize them by the end of the year by having them hired on a permanent basis. We did it in Melfi to stabilize volumes, we will also do it in Cassino. In the Cassino plant we are in the midst of the production climb, in the first quarter it was around 250 per shift, now it is around 300 and before 2017 it will rise further.
In the coming months, a further increase in employment is very likely determined by the increase in production and the consequent increase in the production of vehicles per shift worked. In the first half of 2016, 4.678 Alfa Romeo Giulias were produced, in 2017 we reached 63.409 between Giulia and Stelvio.
Grugliasco and Modena.
Production at Grugliasco in the first half of the year reached 8.912 units compared to the 9.834 produced in 2016. The workers currently employed at the plant were involved in a period of layoffs which ended on 3 July 2017. The production of the model of the year will allow for a recovery in overall volumes in the second half of the year.
Approximately 1.171 GTs and Gran Cabrios were produced in the Modena plant, 27% higher than the figure for the previous six months.
The investments decided in 2016 which shelved the initial hypothesis of stopping the production of Maserati in the Modena plant, are giving their results. With the new Maserati GT and Gran Cabrio models, the Solidarity Agreement which had involved 140 workers for about 34 days was interrupted in the first week of May, and production resumed at full capacity, which overall will exceed the Maserati volumes of 2016. Like Fim Cisl, we positively evaluated the decision to invest to continue the production of the two Maserati Modena models. We know that it is not decisive, therefore it will be important to identify a new specific model to be produced at the Modena site.
Melfi
Production of the Jeep Renegade and 500x continues to achieve positive results. In the first half of the year around 143.000 units were produced overall, with a small decrease of around 9% compared to 2016, for this reason the use of around 10 days of ordinary layoffs was made.
Different story for the Fiat Punto which with 31.722 cars produced shows a further decrease compared to the first half of 2016 when around 36.000 were produced.
Punto's perspective for 2017 is one of a productive descent. As we have already urged FCA, it is essential for the workers employed on the Punto to identify a production solution. The goal of full employment for Melfi means giving a certain perspective to the workers currently employed on this production line with another model.
Pomigliano
The positive trend that characterized the growth of volumes in the last 4 years continues in the Campania plant. 2016 had registered a higher increase of 16,9% compared to 2015 and 33,7% compared to 2013. In the first half of 2017, 122.392 Pandas were produced + 9% compared to the first half of 1, the record year of the 2016 units produced. Already in 207.000, this data allowed us to further expand the area with the greatest impact on employment, even if in Pomigliano, even if the volumes will exceed 2016, full employment does not pass through the Panda. The prospect for the Campania plant are premium models starting with those of Alfa Romeo. We recently renewed the CDS which gives us the opportunity to manage an important investment in a premium model which normally takes 2016 to 15 months. Now FCA can't make us wait any longer, we expect the planning of this investment, which will be no less than that made for the Panda, in the next Group Executive Council.
Sevel
The leading Fiat Professional plant, with production standing at 148.500 in the first half of the year, substantially the same as the units produced in 2016, is preparing to repeat the production record of 2016, having closed with production exceeding 290.000 units (+11,2, 2015% compared to 3). In the last 42,2 years the growth was 357%. In terms of employment, there are around 2016 temporary agency workers who entered the course of 2017/XNUMX, and according to forecasts we will be engaged as a union in building stabilization paths.
Ferrari
Also in the first half of 2017 there was a small increase in volumes of around 15%. Approximately 4.728 Ferraris were produced in the first half of the year, an important figure which highlights continuous growth and expansion. These are positive elements which, for an important brand such as Ferrari, have always had positive returns for workers both in terms of employment and the bonus system.
The production figure for the first half of 2017 confirms the good performance of Italian production and the prospect of exceeding the 1 million vehicle mark this year as well. In the first half of 2017, production was pushed further by Cassino and Mirafiori, with the latest products: Suv Alfa Romeo Stelvio, Alfa Giulia and Suv Maserati Levante. This is having a strong impact on the profitability results of FCA Emea and in our opinion – underlines Uliano – this should lead to further investment action for the Italian factories.
We are close to full employment, like FIM-CISL we have always aimed at this goal. To achieve it, we need to act quickly with new investments, to overcome some critical issues still present, represented in particular by Pomigliano, Mirafiori and Melfi for the part connected to the Punto. FCA must proceed quickly the results obtained in the EMEA region are high, the period in which fewer than 400.000 cars were produced, mostly low-end and with a negative EBIT of over 800 million euros, is now light years away.
As FIM-CISL we will continue with determination in FCA our union and contractual action which has allowed us to overcome the difficult period that we have left behind. We have saved the factories and the employment of one of the most important sectors of our national economy - Uliano reiterates - also implementing a policy of distributing the income produced, increasing the wages of FCA workers with the bonus system introduced in 2015 and with the agreement on welfare.
