Here is the agreement for Wartsila, the role of Fincantieri
A first agreement has been reached at Mimit between Wartsila, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and the trade unions. The activities in the Bagnoli plant will continue until 30 September 2023, without dismissal procedures. The engines commissioned by Fincantieri have been unlocked
Agreement reached with Wartsila which in Trieste deals with the production of engines for shipbuilding, to continue the activity until September 2023 and reindustrialise.
“The Wartsila agreement was signed overnight to guarantee the production continuity of the plants and to monitor the rescue and revitalization process. This is the mission of the Ministry of Enterprise”. The Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, wrote on Twitter.
The agreement comes after months of mobilization following the announcement by the Finnish multinational of the divestment of part of the activities in Italy and the closure of the Bagnoli della Rosandra site. Furthermore, the agreement between Wartsila and the unions which puts an end to the block on deliveries of engines manufactured by the Bagnoli della Rosandra site in Trieste. Already in these hours the first cargoes (the first is the "Deo Volente" which departed from Split in recent days) are appearing in the harbor at the Port of Trieste for the restart of delivery activities, reports Radiocor .
Indeed, Fincantieri was waiting for the release of the engines commissioned at the Bagnoli della Rosandra plant. The Trieste-based naval giant uses Wärtsilä engines. However, in recent days the CEO of the Folgiero naval engineering group had specified that Fincantieri was ready for anything but “as a commercial partner, as a major customer, as a traveling companion in research and development. Everything except "engine production" because we don't have production licenses, Folgiero replied to those who asked him, on the sidelines of a ceremony in Trieste, if Fincantieri was the interlocutor to take over the Wartsila plant.
Thursday 1 December the workers will meet in assembly to analyze the agreement.
Therefore, a company crisis involving 950 direct employees and at least double that in related industries and contracts was averted – for a fixed term.
All the details.
WHAT THE AGREEMENT WITH WARTSILA REACHED AT MIMIT PROVIDES FOR
Production activities at the Wartsila plant in Bagnoli della Rosandra, in Trieste, will continue for 10 months, until 30 September 2023. By the same date, the Finnish company undertakes not to reactivate any collective redundancy procedure and to present a plan by the end of January detailed three-year industrial project, starting a process of reindustrialization of the site to protect the jobs of employees and related industries.
This is what the agreement reached late at night at the table convened at the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy between Wartsila Italia, trade unions, Confindustria Alto Adriatico and the Friuli Venezia Giulia region envisages.
THE COMMITMENT OF THE FINNISH MULTINATIONAL COMPANY
And if the unions have guaranteed to bring the production site back to normal, the company, which in its September quarterly report had announced additional costs of 75 million euros over the first 9 months of the year due to the ongoing dispute , undertook to maintain the current employment levels of the production site until 30 September 2023 also with the use of functional social shock absorbers to accompany the takeover of a new subject in the shortlist of solutions that the ministry and the company's advisor presented in place of negotiation, adds Radiocor .
Since March, however, the use of solidarity contracts has already been envisaged to manage the drop in orders linked to the abandonment of the production site by Wartsila. At the same time, the company has undertaken to invest 5 million euros of its own funds in the development of the R&D and Service area which, according to Wartsila's plans, would remain in Trieste even following the abandonment of production activities.
In the meantime, Wartsila filters the satisfaction of having closed an important agreement thanks to the collaboration between all the parties involved, adds Radiocor.
THE REQUESTS OF THE TRADE UNIONS
“With the signing of this agreement we are moving towards a form of recovery of normality. Albeit for a limited time. Now more than ever it is necessary for the Government to exercise its role to ensure that the possibilities of reindustrialization become certainties. We are asking for a credible industrial plan which is an element of guarantee for employment and the industrial stability of the territory” explains the secretary of the Uilm of Trieste and Gorizia Antonio Rodà.
AWAITING THE INDUSTRIAL PLAN
The agreement "temporarily restores the production activities of the plant, binding Wartsila not to activate any procedure on layoffs until at least 30 September 2023", says Luca Trevisan, national secretary of Fiom-Cgil, in a note. "At the same time, the Finnish multinational is bound to submit, by 31 January 2023, an industrial plan including investments for activities not involved in the reindustrialization process with the aim of guaranteeing jobs at the Trieste, Naples sites and Genoa”, he adds. "The agreement reached last night in the government commits the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy to take action for the presentation of industrial projects aimed at guaranteeing the future of the plant, employment levels and the repercussions for the Trieste area", concludes Trevisan .
FIVE EVENTS OF INTEREST FOR THE PURCHASE OF THE BAGNOLI SITE HAVE BEEN RECEIVED
As the Fim Cisl national secretary Massimiliano Nobis points out, "The agreement commits the government to supporting reindustrialization processes for the Bagnoli site, which can come from discussions with potential operators interested in the factory, undertaken both by the company and by the government itself from submit to Fim, Fiom, Uilm by 31 March 2022".
“At the ministerial table, the company communicated that it has received five expressions of interest for the purchase of the Bagnoli site and all of them envisage a metalworking industrial activity and at least two, the absorption of 100 percent of the current 337 redundancies foreseen by Wartsila. Undersecretary Bergamotto confirmed the three expressions of interest being examined by the ministry announced in the meeting of last November 17 by the Chief of Staff Eichberg” added the trade unionist.
“Various hypotheses had been circulating in recent days, albeit at the level of indiscretions: from the involvement of the German heavy industry giant Rheinmetall (active in the military sector) to the Japanese automotive group (and not only) Mitsubishi; up to – again at the level of rumors – groups such as Hyundai-Daewoo, Fincantieri and Leonardo” Radiocor reported yesterday.
THE POSITION OF FINCANTIERI
Fincantieri certainly does not figure among these events.
"We are ready to help in every way: since we are a part of this ecosystem, if an Italian reality close to Fincantieri is created, we are ready to do anything to make it work", but "as a commercial partner, as a major customer, as a travel companion in research and development. Everything except “engine production” because we don't have production licenses. It's a commodity problem." Thus replied the CEO of Fincantieri, Pierroberto Folgiero, to those who asked him, on the sidelines of a ceremony in Trieste, if Fincantieri was an interlocutor to take over the Wartsila plant.
“To make an engine – he reiterated – you need a license, so it's not like if I buy a plant then I can make an engine. It's like someone who drives on the highway and buys the highway because he uses it. So we can be a courageous, visionary partner of whoever manufactures engines with licenses". Returning to the comparison, he observed, “what I can do is travel the motorway more, I can undertake to buy lots of engines to help the plant, but I can't be the plant, because I don't have the production licences. I can help the restart of this pole in 1000 ways except that I become one with production licenses because Wartsila, Man, Caterpillar have production licenses”.
THE RELEASE OF THE ENGINES
At the same time Fincantieri was strongly awaiting the engines commissioned from Wartsila, the blocking of which penalized the naval group in fulfilling obligations with its customers (so much so that the company threatened legal action).
As Shippingitaly reported, “in the whole of 2019 Wärtsilä received a total of orders from Fincantieri for twenty 46DF type dual fuel engines; for other twenty type 46F; for eight LNGPac fuel storage, feed and control systems, for two scrubber systems; as well as for systems for the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of the various ships under construction".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/ecco-laccordo-per-wartsila-il-ruolo-di-fincantieri/ on Wed, 30 Nov 2022 14:20:21 +0000.