[en] Little victory for Omsa workers

On the 31st of January, the national boycott campaign against Golden Lady products has reached its peak producing a first important result for Omsa workers in Faenza. During an official meeting with local and national institutions, Golden Lady declared its intention to ask for the redundancy payment period prosecution while continuing the negotiations to convert the industrial production of the site.

On 27th of December the company communicated to the workers the end of the redundancy payment period denying also any link between them and the new company in charge of the site from the 14th of March. Since then, workers have started an internet campaign to boycott Golden Lady products which soon spread all over Italy.

Following this mobilization, the company has changed posture and committed itself to present a new industrial plan to relaunch Faenza factory with the new owner, whose name is still unknown. The dismissal announcement has not been formally withdrew yet, but, as the Filctem Cgil union says, “it’s a small step on the direction of a solution that will preserve the workers employes”.

The company is undoubtedly trying to clean its brand after the boycott campaign, however the effort, the union and the workers say, “is out of time”. Nerino Grassi, founder and owner of Omsa, keeps on telling that the cessation of the production in Faenza and the re-collocation of the factory in Serbia was a painful need for the company, due to the economic crisis which has put its survival in danger. Considering that Omsa keeps on having a turnover of 620 million euros, the economic juncture seems to be a real excuse to simply move the production to more convenient countries.

Related articles

– [en] Omsa workers call to boycott

Sources

– text [it] Il fatto quotidiano
– text [it] infoaut.org