Uncertain and transitional period for the Stellantis workers of S. Nicola di Melfi. Troops of colleagues are returning from Pomigliano. And the family grows. “We still don’t know in May if and how many days of work we will have – confesses an assembly worker. – After the long weekend of May 1st, which we imagine will be long, it is not clear what will happen.”
The well-founded fear is that phases of redundancy payments that are still difficult to quantify could open up. In the meantime, however, the first prototypes of the electric car, the Ds, are in production. “We know that the machine is too long, and that they are having problems on the line, and at the moment one is coming out a day,” our source tells us. He adds: “When fully operational we also know that to build it we will need a workforce of 1000 workers, at most.” And everyone else? “We know little about the other electric cars so far, except that there should be another 4 by 2026, one of which is hybrid,” the worker tells us again, confirming what has already been announced by the multinational.
But then there is also the supply chain of cars still produced for a few years in Melfi: the Renegade, the Compass, and the 500x. And precisely about this latest model there are rumors from higher ups, which would see the Melfi site at a disadvantage. “For some time now they have made us understand that the hybrid model of the 500 could be transferred to Poland and therefore leave Melfi definitively”. Times? “From what they have made us understand – continues the source – this could happen as early as 2025”. For now these are just rumours, but from what we understand they are already known to the ‘highest levels’ of the Melfi company.
If this were the case, and while waiting for the long-awaited electric models of the future, Melfi would find itself slightly exposed. Or rather, those who would find themselves exposed would be many workers still employed on the Melfi site, but who do not know precisely, in a year and a half, which cars they will have to produce. And on which market. Given that even the incentive plan for electricity, announced by Minister Urso and long awaited by Stellantis, so far, appears only as a chimera, yet to be revealed. Uncertainties upon uncertainties, which weigh like a cleaver on the future of thousands of workers in Melfi and in Italy. Whether and where the 500x hybrid will end up next year, meanwhile, remains to be seen. Is it just a rumor that would push you towards Poland?
