Towards new social safety nets for Stellantis in Melfi?
On 7 August the social safety nets for over 6 thousand Stellantis workers in Melfi will end. Here is the opinion of the unions and the numbers (in crisis) of the plant
Gerardo Evangelista, the secretary of Fim-Cisl Basilicata, the metalworkers union, said that on 7 August the coverage of social safety nets for 6300 workers at the Stellantis plant in Melfi, in the province of Potenza, will end.
Melfi is the largest Stellantis production plant in Europe, but for some time it has had operational problems due to a lack of microchips , management reorganization and various production uncertainties of the companies operating in the supply chain. According to Evangelista – as reported in recent days by the local newspaper Matera News – the priority is, however, to guarantee economic coverage to the workers of the site with new shock absorbers.
THE REQUESTS OF EVANGELIST (FIM-CISL)
The trade unionist also emphasizes the need to combine the transition of the automotive industry to electric and autonomous mobility with employment protection. And he asks for an agreement on the shock absorbers during the discussions to be held on July 20 between Stellantis, the Ministry of Labor, the regional department of labor and the trade unions.
ALL THE NUMBERS OF MELFI
In the first half of 2022, the Melfi plant reported a 17 percent drop in production volumes compared to the same period of the previous year (i.e. 19,216 fewer vehicles), mainly due to the shortage of microchips.
The Fim-Cisl writes that it is the only Stellantis auto assembly site to have recorded a loss compared to 2019. The comparison with 2019 returns an even greater drop in production: -38.7 percent, equal to more than 59,187 unit.
So far, 93,580 vehicles have been produced in Melfi, mainly Jeep Renegade (43 percent of the total), Jeep Comass (34 percent) and Fiat 500X (23 percent). According to the Fim-Cisl, the plant will not reach the production levels of 2021 and will stop at around 150 thousand units at the end of the year.
INTEGRATION AND RECONVERSION CASSA
In the past few years Melfi alone produced about half of the cars of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (from which, together with the PSA group, Stellantis was born) in Italy; today it is worth 38 percent.
The suspension of activities, attributable to semiconductor procurement difficulties, led to 161 shifts in the first half of the year, managed with ordinary layoffs (CIGO) and solidarity contracts (CDS). Twenty shifts should have started on March 1, which was then reduced to fifteen, with an employment backlash for approximately 1500 workers.
The difficult situation – explains the Fim-Cisl – was managed with various tools, such as intra-group travel (about 250), incentives for voluntary exit (for 830 workers) and the signing of a new solidarity contract ( from 4 April to 7 August) which provides for a maximum reduction of 80 percent of working hours.
The union, in a press release, announces that from next August Stellantis has already made a request for new social safety nets which will serve, in the intentions, to facilitate the transition of the Melfi plant towards the production of four new electric models from 2024.
NEW STOP AT MELFI
In the meantime, Stellantis has communicated to the trade union representation in Melfi that the plant will be closed from 6 am on Monday 11 July to 6 am on Wednesday 13, and then from 6 am to 10 pm on Saturday 16 July, "due to problems related to microchips" .
Gerardo Evangelista declared that "it is now clear that the minus sign of production will continue throughout the year" in Melfi.
EMPLOYEES AND VOLUNTARY RELEASES IN STELLANTIS
Stellantis now has almost 49,000 employees in Italy. According to the trade unions Fim, Uilm, Fismic, Uglm and Aqcfr, the estimated voluntary exits are at most 1820, equal to 3.7 per cent of the workforce. 752 pre-understandings have already been reached.
For those workers who would reach retirement within forty-eight months, the incentives will guarantee 90 percent of their salary in the first half of the period and 70 percent in the second. For the other workers the incentive will instead be equal to twenty-four months and in any case not less than 55 thousand euros (it will vary according to age); 20 thousand euros must be added to the sum if the employment relationship is concluded by 30 September.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/stellantis-melfi-ammortizzatori-sociali/ on Thu, 07 Jul 2022 13:36:20 +0000.