“Now the king is naked“, so the Fiom secretary Landini commented Marchionne's achievement of the ambitious goal he had set for himself: that, that is, of merge two major automotive companies, both in crisis, to make it a multinational able to compete worldwide with the other car giants. However, it was not Marchionne who found himself naked, who won his bet, but, rather, those who, like Landini and, alas, also Squinzi, did not share that operation for the simple fact that they have never understood the conditions.
In fact, Marchionne's was not (only) a brilliant financial operation, as Landini thinks, who understands little about finance. Instead, it was also and above all a (risky) operation industrial and, at the same time, institutional. Industrial, because it involved a radical reorganization of the production cycle of Fiat and Chrysler, a redistribution of the different productions in the various plants around the world, a very strong process innovation (as in Pomigliano) and a combined use of the different models available. These are all operations that have little to do with finance because they are pure industrial policy. And institutional, because it led to an overturning of the industrial relations system in force in Italy and imposed a real paradigm shift both on Confindustria and on Fiom with which, in the end, it collided.
However, there were no valid alternatives to this manoeuvre. Operations of this magnitude can only succeed if they are shared by everyone. In other words, if there is a common assumption of responsibility by the workers, technicians and managers with respect to the future of the company. In short, if one is willing to share the risk and the sacrifices that each restructuring plan entails. It will be trivial to say, but it is the truth. The American union understood this truth. He shared the risk and the responsibilities, he even invested his own resources in the enterprise and today he deservedly pays off.
In Italy, only the Fim and the Uilm have granted a credit line to Marchionne while the Fiom, for a change, has called the prosecutors of half of Italy to the rescue, not to defend the workers, but to assert its right not to respect a agreement even if it was approved by the vast majority of the workers themselves. Better that Fiom resign and repent. There is no alternative to Marchionne's Copernican revolution. The obligatory path is that of returning to company bargaining, to the direct relationship, not mediated by the government, by local authorities or by Confindustria, between workers and the company. After the elections of the internal commission of Fiat in 1956, clamorously lost by Fiom, and after the defeat suffered by the opposing union in the 70s following the march of the Forty Thousand, this is the third time that Fiat has given the union and, in particular, the Fiom, a clear signal of the need to change course and return to company bargaining if it does not want to disappear. Let's hope that this time too the signal will be taken.
The most difficult problem to solve, however, is obviously that of completing the business plan. The cars that can be produced in Italy with a reasonable margin of profitability are and will always be those of the medium-high range: Alfa Romeo, Maserati, the most successful Fiat models, Chrysler models adapted for the European market and, of course, the new models with innovative features that will have to be designed and put into production. Volumes will depend on the recovery of the domestic and European market as well as the recovery of efficiency and productivity in the individual plants. In short, it will be the quality of the productions that will make the difference. It is therefore up to Fiat and all those who work for Fiat to build their future.
However, Fiat can do something to help the country. It can create a legislative context conducive to the affirmation of less conflictual, more transparent and participatory industrial relations. It can encourage nuanced bargaining by helping to reward professionalism and productivity. It can reform the labor market by promoting the recruitment of young people and their professional training. It can free the company from constraints and rigidities that are no longer tolerable. But it can also contribute to the development of the automotive sector by making the most of its strengths which are, in addition to the presence of a large manufacturer like Fiat which, thanks to Marchionne, we have not lost, precision mechanics, quality components, the engineering, motoring and design.
We are by no means leaving the automotive supply chain, as Landini fears. Instead we are trying to occupy in what is by now a wholly globalized world supply chain the prominent place to which our industrial history, including that of Fiat, authorizes us to aspire.
