Here is MSC’s plan for Wartsila
The crisis table for Wartsila was held yesterday at the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy: on the one hand MSC presented its reindustrialization plan, on the other Ansaldo Energia steps aside
The MSC group is ready to save Wartsila of Trieste, the Finnish company that in July 2022 announced its intention to cease production activity at the Bagnoli della Rosandra plant (which supplies engines to Fincantieri) with consequent 450 redundancies to relocate to Finland .
Yesterday the maritime transport company led by Gianluigi Aponte presented the project hypothesis for the reindustrialisation of the Wartsila Italia industrial site in Bagnoli della Rosandra to the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy.
The presentation of the project was made during the crisis table for Wartsila. The meeting, chaired by Undersecretary Fausta Bergamotto, was attended by the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, Wartsila, MSC, Ansaldo Energia, the Ministry of Labour, Confindustria and the trade union representatives. In this context, however, Ansaldo Energia has clarified that at this moment there are no conditions to be part of the project.
With the MSC plan all 300 workers have been reabsorbed: satisfaction for the unions.
All the details.
MSC'S PLAN FOR WARTSILA
As explained in a Mimit note , the project hypothesis put forward by MSC for the reindustrialization of the Wartsila industrial site in Trieste involves creating a production plant for railway carriages for the transport of goods. The Italian-Swiss group, which plans to build railway wagons on the site, has the objective of producing 1,000 wagons a year, reabsorbing all the workers and starting production at full capacity within a maximum of 36 months.
“We reached an agreement: Wartsila closed a plant that produced engines and fired 300 people. We will take back the 300 people and create a railway wagon factory for goods,” Aponte explained in an interview with Secolo XIX earlier this month.
THE DISPUTE
Following the mobilization of workers, a first agreement was reached between Wartsila, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and the unions on 29 November 2022 at Mimit . This provided for the continuation of activities in the Bagnoli plant until 30 September 2023, without dismissal procedures. At the same time, it commits the company and the government to advance re-industrialization projects for the Trieste site, considered strategic for the national territory.
Once the Wartsila plant in Bagnoli della Rosandra has been closed, Fincantieri's engines will no longer be produced in Trieste but in Finland with a serious loss of know-how, the unions explained last month to the Chamber's joint Productive Activities and Labor commissions on the Wartsila dispute.
The naval giant based in Trieste uses Wartsila engines. However, in recent months the CEO of the Folgiero naval engineering group had specified that Fincantieri was ready for anything but "as a commercial partner, as a large customer, as a traveling companion in research and development. Everything except "the production of engines" because we don't have the production licenses , Folgiero replied, to those who asked him, on the sidelines of a ceremony in Trieste last autumn , if Fincantieri would be an interlocutor for taking over the Wartsila plant.
The turning point came at the end of September when the Trieste court accepted the unions' appeal against the Finnish multinational and revoked the 450 redundancies. The company continues with its intention to move production to Finland (services and research and development activities would still remain in Trieste).
ANSALDO ENERGIA DEMONSTRATES
For its part, Ansaldo Energia has instead clarified that at this moment there are no conditions to be part of the project. “We are aware that we are faced with an opportunity not only for Trieste but for the entire country. I want to thank Ansaldo Energia, which in a very difficult moment gave us the availability of a concrete project. Now conditions have changed, it's true. Now, however, we cannot afford to waste time, we must arrive in June with the program agreement concluded": declared the undersecretary delegate for the Crisis, Fausta Bergamotto.
EXECUTIVE SUPPORT
MSC's plan for the reindustrialization of Wartsila “strengthens the production hub of Trieste and its role in the Northern Adriatic with a leading global company. We are convinced that it is the right way to relaunch the industrial site in a highly developed sector for which Trieste, with its logistics, port and railway hub, certainly represents the most suitable place". The Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, writes it on X.
THE POSITION OF THE UNIONS
The unions rejoice (cautiously). Fim, Fiom and Uilm, "while waiting for MSC's industrial plan, which will have to confirm the production and employment commitments declared today at the table" believe "it is necessary to start an urgent meeting also on the contractual and salary contents, including the re-employment times of all 300 workers. Determinant aspects for the overall and complete evaluation of the MSC proposal" reads a joint note from the metalworkers' unions of CISL, CGIL and UIL.
The commitments declared yesterday by the maritime giant for the Wartsila site in Bagnoli della Rosandra (Trieste) "will now have to be reflected in the industrial plan and in the trade union agreement which will have to define the contractual, salary and regulatory conditions of the workers subject to the corporate transition, the employment protection of direct workers and related industries, the valorisation of professionalism" commented Luca Trevisan, national secretary of Fiom-Cgil, in a note after the meeting at the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy of the Wartsila table.
'Furthermore, in the government discussion, (omissis) for the definition of a program agreement for Trieste, it will be necessary to strengthen the industrial and employment constraints of Wartsila Italia for workers employed in service, research and development and staff activities', adds Trevisan.
IN VIEW OF THE NEXT MEETING
“Now we need to put everything in black and white in the program agreement, together with the social safety nets, which will be used to train workers. But we need to act quickly because the solidarity contract expires on June 30th. Even before that, the formal agreement between Wartsila and MSC and the union agreement will be needed” notes MF .
All that remains is to wait for the next meeting for the program agreement which will take place at the Mimit Parliament on March 27th at 11 am.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/ecco-il-piano-di-msc-per-wartsila/ on Thu, 21 Mar 2024 07:31:15 +0000.