Bombardier-Alstom, what’s going on
How are the Bombardier-Alstom negotiations going? The speech by Valerio D'Alò, national secretary of Fim Cisl, and Mauro Masci, national coordinator of Fim Cisl
From the Bombardier crisis that began in 2015 due to the absence of new orders, in the autumn of 2018 during a confrontation at the Mise, the Bombardier leaders publicly announced that they were willing to evaluate a possible partnership capable of relaunching the railway activity in Italy, to starting from the Savona production site of Vado Ligure.
In February 2019, to cope with the very heavy debt situation accumulated by the Group (largely caused by the Aerospace division), the company announced the global sale of the entire Transportation division with a preliminary sale agreement signed with Alstom.
The entire acquisition process was subjected to scrutiny by the European Antitrust which gave a favorable opinion on 31 July 2019.
To avoid problems with the antitrust, the two groups Bombardier Trasportation and Alstom, have evaluated the sale of important projects, which they have submitted as "remedies" – with a redefinition of the industrial perimeter – to the European Union in order to avoid a possible rejection.
The "remedies", that is the disposal of projects that would determine a dominant position on the market by the nascent Group, were analyzed and evaluated by the European Commission which at the end of July 2019, favorably endorsed the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation by by Alstom.
The sale was definitively announced in September 2019, signing a binding SPS agreement between the parties and set for January 29, 2021 the "one day", the day on which Bombardier Limited UK (owner of 100% of Bombardier Transportation shares) was sold for incorporation into Alstom Group.
The full integration of all Bombardier Trasportation employees into Alstom is expected to be completed within two years. As regards the Bombardier Trasportation projects to be disposed of, namely Zefiro and Talent 3, on day one an Antitrust monitoring process was activated through the appointment of process supervisors.
For Fim Cisl, the integration of two leading companies in the railway sector must impose serious reflection on all competitors present on the national territory. In our opinion, this integration will lead to a disruption of the market, which on the one hand will certainly pay off the foresight that Alstom and Bombardier have had in endorsing this operation , and on the other, at least, will see the other players downsize, if they do not field actions to face this new scenario.
It is also advisable to press the two companies to reach a trade union discussion aimed at understanding the new Business Plan and protecting the workers involved in the projects to be disposed of. It will in no way be possible to determine conditions different from the current ones for these workers.
These reorganization models are already present in other industrial sectors, which is why, on January 28th, Fim Cisl brought together for the first time the entire coordination of the railway sector with the presence of all the union representatives of the parent companies (Hitachi – Alstom- Bombardier – Firema Titagarh etc.) and of the realities of maintenance and contracts.
An important initiative that aimed to relate experiences and diversities in the jagged industrial realities in relation to geographical areas as well. The purpose of the day was to formulate a shared strategy that makes us – as a trade union organization – able to interpret the development of a growing sector from different points of view, but which needs sector policies that support workers and companies also in light of the innovations and transitions underway. As Fim we will be at the forefront to promote synergies between companies, institutions and clients in order to guide the future strategies of the Railway Sector in all its articulations.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/bombardier-alstom-che-cosa-sta-succedendo/ on Fri, 05 Feb 2021 07:35:18 +0000.