Stellantis, what will happen to Mirafiori and Grugliasco
The news announced by Stellantis in some plants in the North, detailed by Fernando Liuzzi for the Diary of work
In the meeting that took place in Rome on Monday 11 October, at the Ministry of Economic Development, the Stellantis group, represented by Davide Mele (operational manager for the European area), mainly illustrated the new structure of its production center. Turin. New structure that is part of a progressive redesign of the presence in Italy of the group born from the merger of FCA with the French PSA.
Now, that the merger between two industrial groups – each of which was already endowed with its own supranational structure – entails the search for new territorial balances and new articulations of the different productive missions, is a matter of course. Unfortunately, in the specific case of Stellantis, this research takes place in a phase marked by the accumulation of a series of problems that make the life of the car industry not only particularly intense, but also particularly troubled. In the background, there is the transformation of the car product into the mobility product. In the foreground, there is the combination of the environmental transition (with all its consequences relating to the transition from internal combustion engines to electric traction) with the digital transition. In the foreground, the accumulation of production drops recorded in 2020, due to the anti-Covid lockdowns, with the current serious shortage of microchips. This deficiency, given the increasing quantity of electronics housed inside the new car models, creates a serious impediment to the hoped-for recovery in production.
In such a complex situation, the coexistence of different readings of the same passage is therefore perhaps easier than in the past. In the meeting last Monday, for example, Stellantis offered a very positive image of the news regarding the so-called Turin center. News concerning, first of all, the future of Mirafiori, the most famous Turin plant of the former Fiat.
If we understand well, Stellantis, in the first place, intends to strengthen the current characteristic of Mirafiori as the place of production of the 500 Bev. Where the abbreviation Bev stands for Battery Electric Vehicle and indicates that we are talking about a car whose engine is entirely powered by an electric battery and therefore does not directly produce any harmful emissions. And here it should be emphasized that this car, precisely the electric 500, is also the model whose production, in 2021, is better than all the others in the Stellantis galaxy.
Also in order to strengthen the “electric” characterization of Mirafiori, Stellantis has therefore announced that the production of Maserati models will be transferred here from the former Bertone plant in Grugliasco. Given that the Levante SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) is already being produced in Mirafiori, the Quattroporte and Ghibli models will also be built here from now on. And this, precisely, in parallel with the electrification process of the entire Maserati brand.
In the Stellantis Turin Manufacturing District, here is the high-sounding name of the new company, a new platform will be created, called Folgore, intended to support the new Maserati models, hybrid or full electric, which will be set up between 2022 and 2024: Gran Cabrio and Gran Turismo, as well as the new Quattroporte.
To this end, 1,100 workers will be transferred from Grugliasco to Mirafiori, where they will reach the 2,900 employees currently active in the body shops. In Grugliasco, however, the former Bertone plant, acquired by Marchionne in 2009, will not close immediately. In fact, the bodywork department is expected to remain active until 2024. It should be noted that the production of the 500 with an internal combustion engine, currently carried out in Poland at the Tychy plant, will go to a halt more or less quickly.
In short, not good news for Tychy and Grugliasco, good for Mirafiori. In the vision offered by Stellantis, they are also good for the entire relationship between Stellantis itself and Turin, home of Fiat and birthplace of the relationship between the Agnelli family and the car industry. In fact, Mirafiori seems to take on a new character, as a plant aimed at achieving the ecologically compatible electrification of traction for both relatively “cheap” vehicles, such as the 500, and luxury vehicles, such as the Maserati. And therefore, a new characterization capable of ensuring a future for the most iconic plant of the Agnelli tradition.
On the other hand, the savings that should be made possible by the concentration of all the Piedmontese Maserati production in a single factory must also have had a certain weight in the company's assessment.
"We have understood that from Stellantis there is a progressive definition of the industrial plan that will have to characterize investments by 2024." So declared Roberto Benaglia, General Secretary of the Fim-Cisl, and Ferdinando Uliano, car manager of the same union. On the contrary, Francesca Re David, General Secretary of Fiom-Cgil, and Michele De Palma, its car manager, stated that "Fiom has a negative opinion of the meeting" of 11 October. And this, "due to the lack of a strategic plan for workers".
In particular, Fiom “asked to change the method of comparison: it is not acceptable to meet to be informed of company choices, plant by plant”. Conclusion: "We ask the Government to discuss with Stellantis on the national industrial level, guaranteeing the occupation and full use of the plants starting from the mission of the Central Authorities and up to the assembly". Fiom therefore poses, first of all, a problem of method. Behind which we can see a concern that arises not only from a reduction in the degree of "use of plants", but, in perspective, from a reduction in the number of active plants.
Concern shared, as far as we understand, by Uilm. Whose Secretary General, Rocco Palombella, and whose car manager, Gianluca Ficco, ask for "formal guarantees for workers" both "in terms of occupational protection and production missions", and as regards "working conditions".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/stellantis-mirafiori-grugliasco/ on Mon, 18 Oct 2021 05:00:05 +0000.