In recent years Fiat has been discussed and narrated in Italy, also thanks to a large part of incompetent journalism and a lazy academic world, with categories more useful for describing the gossip news than a great industrial affair such as that of Fiat. Today many pretend not to remember, or rewrite history in their own way by forgetting all those episodes of demonization of the union responsible. The Fim, for the responsibility it has assumed, however, remembers very well the attacks on the offices and the attacks on our managers. We will never forget them. We will not allow those who have not yet disposed of the dregs of ideological extremism to spoil the democratic dialectic in the factories.
What to expect? A major national newspaper had written that "the Pomigliano and Mirafiori agreements had been signed in the flesh and blood of the workers". We never ask for abjurations, but some reflection?! We have saved an important sector of our country such as the automotive sector. In 2004, when Sergio Marchionne entered the scene, the company was on the verge of the abyss: it had a turnover of 27 billion and was losing more than one billion euros a year. It had failed, not just technically.
Today, in fact, thanks also to those agreements, as much as 4% of the growth in industrial production concerns the automotive sector with FCA as the leader. In the annual meeting held with CEO Marchionne this week at the Lingotto in Turin, we had confirmation of the goodness of the choices made by the Fim starting from 2010. These days we can see the company that was up until a year ago the black jersey in terms of sales and bringing up the rear of Europe in market, leap today to the top of all rankings. Is it perhaps a disaster that Renegade and 500x fill car transporters, ships and wagons because they are sold all over the world? It's work, Italian intelligence: how can we not be proud of it?
- agreements signed with FCA, nobody remembers it today, they were the real pillars on which the relaunch of the group was based, taking advantage of the economic, industrial and social change processes to compete on global scenarios, safeguarding and protecting male and female workers, guaranteeing their rights in a difficult phase of corporate restructuring, enhancing participatory industrial relations.
We registered a positive decrease in layoffs which went from 40% in 2013 to 12% this year with an increase in employment in 2015 of 3000 stable hires. Another 200 people will be employed in the experimental constructions of Mirafiori to design special versions of the new Ducato, while another 200 in Verrone and Termoli in view of the increase in engine production.
The meeting confirmed the investments envisaged in the 2014-2018 plan presented in Detroit and full employment by the end of 2018. In particular on the brand Alfa Romeo of the 8 models planned for 2018 against a 5 billion euro investment, two models have been confirmed for 2016, the Giulia sedan and the first Alfa “Stevio” SUV. For the other six models, a time frame is confirmed for their creation in any case by 2020. The important novelty at the Pomigliano plant, where the Panda is currently produced, is that it will participate in the Alfa Romeo project, together with the Cassino and Mirafiori sites.
Su Maserati the objective of the industrial plan which provided for the production of the Levante SUV at Mirafiori has been achieved and it will also be involved in the Alfa project for the premium range. For the Maserati plant in Modena, current production and the commitment in this phase to reduce the impact of the temporary decline on volumes deriving from the crisis in China have been confirmed.
On 7 July 2015, we signed an important reward system with FCA for Group workers which has a duration of 4 years. The agreement includes two bonuses: a group one of around 1320 euros over 4 years, linked to the objectives of the industrial plan, equal for all workers and without penalties of any kind, with reference to the EMEA region and the other; relating to plant efficiency linked to World Class Manufacturing (WCM) parameters with an overall bonus amount for workers ranging from 6000 to 10 euros in the 2015-2019 period.
The now inebriated rhetoric of rights always forgets that when factories are closed, rights become a distant memory because as Luciano Lama reminded us "with 1 million 600 thousand unemployed, we must sacrifice any other strategic objective for the fight against unemployment", Lama spoke in 1978, today the unemployed are more than double. They were strong and forward-looking words, today they are not very chic, too serious and demanding. If they are not exotic, the workers, and the trade unionists symbolic and harmless, they are not cool, but they are still capable of great things.
