2024-03-19 17:12:15
Interview conducted by the website’s editorial team of the PdAC
The situation of the car factories in Italy is dramatic. Every week comes the news of a new closure or displacement, destined to become hundreds of layoffs: in addition to the case of Crevalcore’s Marelli, which we have already talked about in a previous article – and of which these days there is talk of hiring for 152 of 299 workers (1)–; Now it is the turn of the Marelli plant in Venaria (Turin), where at least 320 jobs are at risk (2).
Emblematic is the action of the Stellantis group (formerly Fiat) which, in addition to putting a large part of the group’s workers in a situation of dismissal (from Mirafiori to Pomigliano to Maserati in Modena), severely hits combative union activists, in an attempt to prevent actions of workers’ struggle: the workers Delio (Cub, Cassino plant) and Francesca (Slai Cobas, Atessa plant) were fired for misleading reasons. The response of the workers was immediate: on March 8, on the occasion of the strike for the International Day of Working Women, a protest was organized in Atessa, in front of the factory, with the presence of a delegation of workers from the Cassino plant. Our militants present at the factory were also its promoters and our colleague Diego Bossi, a Pirelli worker, intervened bringing the solidarity of the entire Communist Alternative Party (3). Solidarity with Francesca, a woman and worker fired on the eve of March 8, was also shouted in other squares on March 8, for example in Modena, in one of the opening speeches of the march in the city (4).
We report here an interview with Roberto, a member of the Slai Cobas of Chieti and the PdAC, a Stellantis worker, who explains the situation in the group’s factories. We also republished an in-depth historical article by Fabiana Stefanoni, which reconstructs some of the most important moments of the workers’ struggles at Fiat in recent decades: the strikes of the seventies that culminated in the occupation of Mirafiori in 1973. It’s good, In fact, do not forget that the struggles of the Fiat workers – along with those of the workers of Pirelli, Fincantieri, etc. – have marked the fate of our country: a demonstration of workers’ strength that we must remember today because it contrasts with those of the union bureaucrats who invite workers to resignation and surrender.
Before going into more specific details about the Atessa plant, what can you tell us about the general situation of the group, in light of the recent statements by Tavares, that he is taking advantage of the government like his predecessor, while the Italian factories are almost all of them in stagnation (see the layoffs at Mirafiori, against which the workers also went on strike, and at Maserati in Modena)? And what will the electric transition mean for workers?
First of all, it would be useful to frame the financial situation of the Stellantis group, as well as contextualize Tavares’ words. 2023 was a record year for the giant born in 2021 from the merger (!) between FCA and PSA with revenues of 189.5 billion euros and a net profit of 18.6 billion, figures that have not stopped growing from three years now. Figures that underline the financial strength of the group and its ability to generate profits for shareholders, who will receive 6.6 billion in dividends. Sales of electric and hybrid vehicles have seen double-digit percentage increases compared to last year, and estimates for 2024 follow the same trend. These data must be read from a global perspective and indicate a multinational present throughout the world that produces a lot and collects a lot, but, seen from the perspective of national realities, the disastrous consequences emerge, especially social, of the most extreme globalization. Therefore, we must remember, as we have done on numerous occasions, that the processes of mergers and acquisitions between industrial groups have the sole objective of optimizing resources and appropriating new market segments to increase profits.
In the case at hand, the French part (PSA) acquired the Italian-American counterpart (FCA), above all to enter the North American market, the most profitable, and eliminate or at least drastically reduce an internal competitor. The exchange was evidently unequal: the reins are in the hands of the French, just look at the board of directors and the main management positions, while the Italian part, which rests on the ashes of Fiat, has lost all decision-making and strategic capacity. Furthermore, John Elkann himself, after having sold FCA to Peugeot and having pocketed billions, laconically declared “we can no longer deal with Italy.”
The consequences are visible to all. The dismantling of Italian factories is underway, but the process began a long time ago, in the name of that optimization of resources that I mentioned before, that is, moving production to places that are more profitable and where there are few or no limitations. legislative or environmental: the group’s new goals are North Africa and Eastern Europe, where the factories have already reached considerable production quotas. It is easy right now for Tavares, with workers on severance pay and factories closed, to threaten displacement to obtain public funds in the form of incentives and the contraction of labor rights to operate without disruption. On the other hand, the request for public funds is an old story: it is estimated that, from 1975 to today, first Fiat, then FCA and now Stellantis have received 220 billion euros in various forms, including incentives, early retirements, scrapping and financing for the opening of new plants. As for the electrical transition, it has nothing to do with the environmental issue because it is guided by capitalist logic; the real reasons are the need to recreate a saturated automobile market and the reduction in the workforce needed to increase profits.
The old Sevel plant is currently the only one in the Stellantis orbit that produces with some continuity in Italy. However, here too, after the acquisition of Psa, doubts arose about the future of the plant, despite verbal assurances from Tavares. What has changed under French leadership?
The Atessa plant has been producing commercial vehicles continuously and increasingly for more than 40 years, thanks to the specificity of the product, but, above all, thanks to the dedication and sacrifice of thousands of workers. However, with the birth of Stellantis, the plant suffers the same fate as other Italian plants, that is, it is immersed in a downward competitive logic that has workers as the only victims. For the first time, commercial vehicle production is shared with another plant, Gliwice in Poland, which previously assembled cars. The Polish factory benefits from the latest technologies (robotization) and a preferential tax regime, as well as very low labor costs, all of which are advantageous to employer exploitation. It is clear that Gliwice is now the paragon, so Tavares’ mantra is to cut costs, which has generated increasingly extreme working conditions and terrible repercussions for workers in contracted companies and related industries, from cleaning to the component manufacturers, who were explicitly advised by the Portuguese CEO to transfer production to the more profitable (for him) Polish pole. In short, in addition to the disastrous CCSL, Tavares can count on the threat of relocation to impose its conditions on workers.
As Slai Cobas, you are promoters together with Usb of a series of struggles against the pace and workload and against misleading disciplinary measures against combative workers. What specifically are the problems on assembly lines?
We have always been promoters of struggles against work rates and workloads, obviously because they are necessary to counteract the bosses’ desire for profit to the detriment of the health and pockets of the working class. The Ccsl stipulation and Stellantis’ current strategies have exacerbated the fight; The cost reduction advocated by Tavares translates into increasingly difficult working conditions that undermine the health and safety of workers. Working on a mechanized line involves scanning times and analyzing movements and postures which, if not properly controlled, lead to an increase in the speed (more production, i.e. more profits for the boss) of individual operations. and specific risks of musculoskeletal damage for workers. We are fighting against the bonding clauses of an unfair employment contract and those who run them, including the signatory union leaders.
These exasperating working conditions create a climate of discontent among workers and tensions on the production lines: the employers’ response is repression of dissent through deceptive disciplinary measures against those combative workers who do not bow their heads. Emblematic are the recent illegitimate and discriminatory dismissals imposed on colleague Delio from Flmu-Cub in Cassino and colleague Francesca from Slai Cobas in Chieti, “guilty” of carrying out coherent and determined union activity. One thing is certain: we will defend those who are attacked by any means possible.
Do you think that union struggles like yours can spread and connect with the other factories of the group? In line with what you did with your colleagues from the Cub de Cassino, in the former Sevel, to denounce the forced displacement of workers.
Of course, the recent disciplinary responses, as well as the continuous movement of workers from one plant to another and the working conditions in the factory make a univocal response from the group’s workers auspicious and necessary; We will work to ensure this happens to counteract the bosses’ strategies of profit and exploitation.
1 https://www.partitodialtracomunista.org/articoli/sindacato/marelli-di-crevalcore-non-si-svende-la-lotta. Here is the latest news, which confirms our analysis:
Article published in www.partitodialternativacomunista.org19/3/2024.-
Translation: Natalia Estrada.
#Stellantis #Fiat #class #analysis