Italy: Fiom-CGIL rejects the agreement on Fiat-Pomigliano d’Arco’s restructuring plan which rams the industrial relations system

“A U-turn in Italian industrial relations.” This is how Labor Minister Maurizio Sacconi defined the separate agreement on Fiat’s restructuring plan for the Pomigliano d’Arco factory (Naples) signed between fiat and the Fim-Cisl, Uilm-Uil, UGL and Fismic unions on Friday, June 11th, after very tense negotiations. Indeed, the plan’s controversial points caused, at first, unanimous union rejection. However, faced with Fiat’s ultimatum (accept the plan to save the region’s 15,000 jobs, including equipment manufacturers, or refuse and drive the management to shut the site down), all – except the Fiom – caved in after a few compromises on the plan’s critical points. Fiat deputy administrator, Sergio Marchionne, who demanded a unitary agreement, rejoiced with it but reserved himself the possibility to ratify it after the workers’ referendum. Saying that constitutional rights can’t be “material for blackmail” for workers forced to choose “between keeping their job and loosing their individual rights,” the Fiom demands the start of a new negotiation round. Fiat will meet with unions again this afternoon (June 15th). Here are the plan’s key elements.