On September 18, 420 Honeywell employees at the Atessa (Val di Sangro) plant in Abruzzo went on an indefinite strike to protest against the closure and future relocation to Romania and Slovakia of the factory specializing in the production of turbo diesels for numerous car manufacturers
Almost a month after the start of the strike – called by the Fim, Fiom and Uilm unions – the US company has not yet opened discussions to find a solution.
Honeywell has announced that, after the company spin-off that has just started, it will need a month to be able to evaluate the effects on the Atessa plant. The Fim therefore took the field to support the workers' protest, directly addressing the Minister of Economic Development, Carlo Calenda, to convene a table to find a solution to safeguard the work and professionalism of the employees who have been presiding over the Abruzzo plant for days.
The unions also highlighted the importance of the presence of a company like Honeywell, which represents excellence for
quality and professionalism, as well as a strategically important supplier for other automotive factories in Val di Sangro.
“Relocations represent a depletion of the industrial fabric and are always unacceptable – declared Marco Welcome, secretary general of the Fim-Cisl – all the more so when this path is chosen by companies, such as Honeywell, which grind profits on a global level.
“This decision therefore goes solely in the direction of maximizing profit at the expense of workers and our country. In recent years we have made efficiency and productivity agreements that have brought our labor costs to a lower level than the French one, compressing production into 2 shifts instead of 3 while maintaining the same volumes"
