In 2012, Indesit employed 4,568 workers in Italy but October 2012 saw an attempt to lay off 500 workers and move some production to Poland. The company’s 2013 “safeguard & rationalize” restructuring plan has the same direction of travel: 1,425 layoffs and investment of 70 million euros in new plants in Poland and Turkey.
Over 1,000 workers halted production at two of the company’s Italian factories. A number of demonstrations took place in Caserta, Ancona, with long marches and streets closed to traffic.
In a statement, the company said that “due to the (unions’) exercise of the legitimate right to strike, and the hold-up of goods needed for production, production lines cannot be supplied properly. Indesit, therefore, has to halt production at the Albacina (and Melano) factories, starting at 12 noon on June 28. Work will resume normally on July 2.”
Working together, the unions have called a strike for July 5 and another for the 12th.
At a union demonstration held in Rome on June 22, CGIL leader Susanna Camusso told the rally: ”Indesit is not in crisis, it just wants to use its profits to make investments in Turkey and Poland.”
Meanwhile Flavio Zanonato, Minister for Economic Development, says of the Indesit issue: “We’ll organize negotiations. The aim is safeguard employment, without layoffs.”
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