312 Neapolitan workers become competitors of the Chinese in the construction of photovoltaic panels. An unknown fate three years ago, when their (former) Whirlpool factory decided to close the plant.
After a very tough battle, spontaneous solidarity, meetings at all levels, the publication of a book, concerts, visits by dozens of artists, on Monday and Tuesday - 30, 31 October - the workers will sign the transition to Italian Green Factory, a company of the Tea Tek group.
In the factory there was celebration and some tears to close one of the most difficult disputes of recent years. One way or another the 312 workers are entered the history of Italian trade unionism.
Tea Tek took over the factory where washing machines were produced through a public tender. You created the new company by committing to signing by January 31st a program agreement to boost the production of photovoltaic panels.
The sign of a new industrialization
The city closes a page opened by the diseconomies complained of by a global household appliance brand. It must be recognized that the conclusion of the matter redeems the commitment of the workers' organizations which is now approaching innovative sectorsi.
In an uncertain and confusing panorama of the labor market, for a dispute that is closed, hope opens up for the many others that are still at sea. It won't be easy to take them on the same roads as the Italian Green Factory and the union, the reform left, must show the necessary ability to help the country grow in these sectors.
The alternatives to status quo for hundreds of other companies they must be examined by all the subjects at every junction to enter that new economy where the children of (ex) Whirlpool workers will grow up. It is a question of political culture and the conclusion of the Neapolitan dispute says that the struggle pays as long as it plumbs the future.
“Today is a new beginning,” he said Happy Granisso, CEO of Italian Green Factory. We have the ambition of being a model of sustainable and competitive development." Granisso says he is proud to lead the first 5.0 factory in Naples and the South. Is he the only one to say it? No, the city will stand by him. Who would have thought that when the washing machine assembly lines stopped, a historic factory would become the social barrier against a new impoverishment?
