The signature has finally arrived on the agreement between ArcelorMittal and the commissioners of theformer Ilvin extraordinary administration. The agreement provides for the modification of the lease contract, the acquisition to renovate the iron and steel pole of Taranto and the cancellation of the civil case started in Milan.
The clear rejection of the trade unions, according to which the Government's strategy on environmental remediation, as well as on the industrial and employment prospects of former Ilva it's not clear at all. The general secretaries of CGIL, Cisl e Uil – together with the category abbreviations Fim, Fiom and Uilm – following the pre-agreement reached last week between Arcelor Mittal, the Government and the commissioners on the fate of the iron and steel plant in Taranto. The workers' representatives also complain that the negotiations have taken place without “any involvement of trade unions”.
“To uncertainty is added a total uncertainty about the will of the investors – continues the note – starting from Arcelor Mittal, regarding their financial commitment in the new corporate structure that will constitute the new AMinvestco”.
All of this “comes after two years of further uncertainty – write the trade unions again – particularly risky for an industrial reality which instead needs careful and determined management. Added to this is an unfavorable situation on the steel market”.
In particular, the unions complain of excessive uncertainty on these points:
- the period of time without clear governance;
- the role of banks and the public investor;
- the production mix between integral cycle and electric furnaces;
- the role of the two companies;
- the possibility with this plan of employing the 10.700 workers plus the 1.800 in extraordinary administration and the workers of the contracting companies, which the agreement of 6 September 2018 ensured.
Furthermore, the workers' representatives underline again, the pre-agreement “provides for an increase in workers on the redundancy fund and the obligation of the trade union agreement by 30 May without our prior sharing of the plan and the instruments adopted”.
In light of all this, according to the unions "the overall structure of the plan risks being unsustainable due to its scarce vertical production (pipes, laminates, plates, strip trains) whose investments are much lower than the plan signed up to by us and the positive forecast of restarting the Afo5 has times for its overhaul that are too dilated over time”.
Finally, CGIL, CISL and UIL recall that "the agreement of 6 September 2018 it did not provide for redundancies or the use of layoffs. It ensured that a major steel producer was in place to execute the established plan. That agreement remains the best guarantee of all employment, environmental rehabilitation and the relaunch of production”.
Meanwhile, precisely on the situation of Ilva, the Sardines of Taranto have launched a petition on Change.org: Taranto Green New Deal Now! "For years Taranto lives under the perennial blackmail of a economic and environmental condition that causes tragic repercussions on the front of the protection of workers' health and whole community. Legislative interventions in this sense have in fact postponed any type of decision, weakening all the esteem and credibility in the community towards national and European democratic institutions", write the Sardines, asking for "a courageous and sustainable change", through the institution "of a structure that gives strength to this action and works constantly in contact with the territorial reality".
