The summit on the ILVA dispute at the Ministry of Economic Development was recently concluded in the presence of Minister Di Maio, among the top management of Arcelor-Mittal, the Ilva commissioners and the trade union organisations. The company and the unions were waiting for clear words from the Minister but Luigi Di Maio, after reading a short text, limited himself to giving the word to the company and the unions.
The Secretary General of Fim Cisl Bentivogli reiterated that it is the Government that must guarantee the starting conditions put in place by the previous Government and which it has not yet guaranteed at the moment.
The risk therefore becomes that of resume negotiations with the Government which is hiding its hand, starting from 250 million for redundancy incentive policies, which apparently have fallen to 200 .
The Minister gave the floor on this last point to the commissioners to respond, but Bentivogli reiterated that they are commissioners appointed by the Minister and that they refer to the Minister, who has to give certainties.
Di Maio replied that the negotiation is between the company and the unions and that it can also restart in parallel with the procedure for canceling the tender. The substance is that, while the Minister verifies whether to cancel the tender, he restarts the negotiation on more backward starting conditions than the previous Government. Usb and Fiom also asked the Government for clarity, a request also made by Arcelor Mittal.
The Commissioners reiterated that the contract established between the Company and the Union with the previous Government already provided for the possibility of being improved, as happened among other things with the addendum on the environment, also on employment by incorporating what the possible union agreement he will predict if he reaches an agreement.
The company's position on redundancies is unchanged and is unacceptable, the Government has not yet resolved the knots within its competence. For this reason, the distance towards the agreement is also moving away from the start of the negotiations now 15 months ago.
“If the Minister wants to do better than his predecessor – Bentivogli declared – we are all happy, but demonstrate it on the merits because alongside the announcements we are going backwards. The Fim is available to negotiate to the bitter end, Fiom and Usb have become unwilling to continue the negotiations before the opinion of the State Attorney's Office.
