“Disastrous car production in Italy. It’s crazy to give 36 million salary to the CEO”

There is no peace for the workers Stellantisthe multinational holding company based in the Netherlands born in 2021 from the merger of the Italian-American group Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the PSA group.

In fact, the company announced a plan last month that includes thousands of redundancies in various Italian locations. In Mirafiori alone there are more than 1,500 workers involved, including over 700 white collar workers.

But the “voluntary exits” encouraged by the company do not stop here. In fact, to these numbers we must add 850 workers in Cassino (of which 300 on the move to Pomigliano) and 100 in Pratola Serra. As if that wasn’t enough, two days ago the group announced a new cold shower for the Turin site Mirafiori: more than two thousand employees of the plant, in fact, will be laid off starting next week.

In the meantime, however, the shareholders’ meeting approved a distribution of 5 billion euros in dividends and the 55% increase in the salary of CEO Carlos Tavares, which for 2023 received a whopping 23.5 million euros, equal to the average annual salary of a thousand employees. It must be added to the basic salary, which is decidedly generous in itself a bonus of almost 13 million euros linked to the transformation of the group born in 2021 from the merger of PSA and Fiat-Chrysler. A decision that naturally sparked quite a bit of controversy, in a context in which thousands of workers and employees were asked to make costly sacrifices.

But what is Stellantis’ strategy in Italy? Does the successor company of the Fiat group intend to continue investing in our country for the production of electric cars? Fanpage.it asked Samuele Lodinational secretary of Fiom CGIL with responsibility for the automotive sector.

After the redundancies of recent months, Stellantis has announced that over two thousand workers at the Mirafiori plant, responsible for the electric Fiat 500 and Maserati cars, will be laid off from Monday 22 April. Why this decision by the company?

The reasons for this decision are up to Stellantis. It is certainly clear that production is drastically decreasing and that consequently the use of social safety nets is increasing. It is also not excluded that in Mirafiori and other factories the number of employees on layoffs will further increase in the coming weeks. I am referring, in particular, to the workers at Maserati in Modena. In short, the concerns are concrete and clash with Tavares’ continuous reassurances on the presumed centrality of the Italian factories. Unfortunately, the reality of the facts is very different.

What is Stellantis’ strategy for Italy, according to Fiom?

I don’t go so far as to say that Stellantis’ strategy is to exit Italy, but it certainly wants to disinvest in our country. On the other hand, the data are clear, and not from today: investments in Italy are few when compared to those carried out in other non-EU countries, in particular in Turkey and North Africa. This, in addition to the progressive emptying of the factories which began in 2015 and which led to the exit of over 12 thousand workers thanks to the exodus incentives, indicates to us that for Stellantis Italy is not a central country.

Could Fiat’s “heir” industrial group leave Italy entirely in the future?

I don’t think this, at least in an average time horizon. However, the evident disengagement from our country risks exposing the factories to a progressive and inexorable emptying. I remember that industrial sites can only survive if they have certain production volumes; if these volumes are missing, costs rise and become unsustainable. From this point of view, the strategies on Mirafiori and Cassino risk being very risky. I use an image: in Mirafiori we are in deep water, in Cassino there is high water, but overall in Italy there is not even one dry factory.

How many jobs are at risk in Italy?

It’s an estimate we haven’t made yet. However, we are in contact with other European unions, in particular in countries where Stellantis factories are located, to carry out checks from an employment point of view. We will soon know what the repercussions of the group’s policies could be on workers across Europe, including Italy.

You claim that Stellantis production in Italy is in sharp decline. However, in 2023, according to data released by the company, Stellantis produced 752 thousand cars in our country, with an increase of 9.6 percent compared to 2022. How do you interpret these numbers?

The growth of 2023 was physiological and completely normal after the Covid years. From a production point of view, however, the 2024 volumes are absolutely disastrous. If this trend is confirmed in the coming months, the decline will be significant.

The government has set the goal of producing one million cars in Italy. Do you think it’s achievable?

The framework agreement stipulated at the ministry envisages reaching one million cars in Italy by 2030, but at this rate it will be difficult to achieve this result. I underline, among other things, that for Fiom the one million vehicles is insufficient: we propose one million cars and 300 thousand light commercial vehicles. With 1.3 million cars we will be able to saturate all the factories and guarantee employment. With a million it will be very difficult. And in any case today we are decidedly far from that target.

Can Stellantis’ difficulties also be attributed to the delay with which the group dedicated itself to electric cars?

There was certainly a delay. On the other hand, even before the merger with PSA, Sergio Marchionne’s FCA did not believe in the success of electric cars. As a result, the start of that production sector was significantly delayed. And this is a huge problem.

Even the Italian government doesn’t seem to believe much in the production of electric cars to limit CO2 emissions…

But the transition is irreversible and must be governed. That transition must be made together with workers, because it is clear that it will cause not only opportunities but also problems. This is why we need innovation, training and social safety nets, otherwise the risk is that of losing thousands of jobs and also the necessary public consent to the energy transition.

The government has approved almost a billion euros in incentives for the purchase of new cars…

To be precise, this is 950 million euros. We maintain that those incentives are necessary, but that they had to be defined after a discussion with the automotive sector unions. In fact, we believe that state aid should only be granted on the condition that Stellantis maintains adequate car production in Italy. However, no public resources should be recognized to those who intend to empty our country’s factories.

The Stellantis shareholders’ meeting approved the distribution of a dividend of almost 5 billion euros two days ago. And the salary of CEO Carlos Tavares will rise by 55 percent, to 36 and a half million euros. What do you think?

He will earn like a thousand workers. The considerations that a trade union organization can make in the face of this are more than evident: it was a bit like shooting at the Red Cross in a context of difficulty for thousands of workers in the group. Such a salary is totally crazy and irrational everywhere, in Stellantis as in any other industrial group.