TERMOLI. At the ministerial table yesterday morning at Mimit, of which we gave a preview of the outcome, the Molise Region and the sectoral confederal trade union organizations also expressed their opinions. The meeting, strongly supported by the vice president of Molise Andrea Di Lucente, was attended not only by the national trade unions and company RSUs but also by the regions of Basilicata, Tuscany and Abruzzo. The Molise Region has asked several times, until obtaining it, for discussion on the company’s situation, also extending it to other areas of Italy so as to carry out systemic action. Molise reiterated its openness to starting the Gol program, dedicated to employment actions for workers. As also happened in the pre-meeting held in Campobasso two weeks ago, councilor Di Lucente reiterated the Region’s approval for a further year of extraordinary layoffs. The objective is to have the necessary time, over the next few months, to proceed with a massive relocation of personnel to other production plants in the region, also allowing for the retraining of the workers.
During the meeting, the Ministry provided a series of suggestions to the company to implement different procedures from those already activated, in such a way as to allow greater protection for workers, starting with the possibility of accompanying older people towards retirement and proceed with a series of initiatives to benefit employees. Not only.
Vibac was also asked to review the industrial plan in view of the next appointment which will take place in about twenty days. «I have pressed hard with the ministry to try to find a solution to the issue of Vibac workers. The path, which we also spoke about with the unions, is that of relocating, through a plan developed by the Molise Region and financed with our resources, the workers to other companies which, being expanding, need workers. The policies to stimulate business growth, which we have already implemented, will also serve to mitigate the impact of any crises such as those of Vibac. Having managed to bring the dispute to a broader level, therefore at the ministry, was an initial success, now we are working on the rest”, explained the councilor for Productive Activities, Andrea Di Lucente. The confederal trade union organizations highlighted that «As the trade union part we have expressed all our concerns related to the lack of a group industrial plan that determines guarantees of employment levels on all the various sites, we have underlined that the company policy of no longer producing the film neutral, preferring to import it from foreign competitors together with the growing activity of the plant in Serbia, Vibac Balkans, is not giving the desired results which, if anything, as can easily be seen from the ongoing discussion, produces an unacceptable reduction in personnel at the plant Termoli. Furthermore, we pointed out that the Viggiano plant is also preparing to complete the social safety net period and, therefore, we believe it is necessary and urgent to start discussions aimed at relaunching the company.
Finally, we expressed our doubts about the start of the dismissal procedure adopted by the company, pursuant to L.223/91, as in our opinion, both due to dimensional requirements and due to effects on the closure of certain production lines, at in order to guarantee different timing and greater involvement of the social partners, the company should have adopted the provisions regarding the protection of the employment and production fabric of L.234/21. The Regions present at the meeting, in addition to expressing their concern, offered all their support, including financial support, in order to preserve employment and support the production recovery of the company. The company, in response to the various requests, limited itself to reiterating the difficulties generated by geopolitical dynamics and underlining serious competitiveness problems, it did not propose any ideas regarding the company’s relaunch and, without taking into account the union requests, it limited itself to opening a window in an attempt to gain time while waiting for changes in the reference market. The closing of the meeting was, as usual, by the Ministry, which forcefully raised our procedural doubts, supporting the union’s thesis regarding the incorrect procedure. The Ministry also pointed out that within L.234 there would be space for sharing the industrial plan as well as the connection to a further shock absorber which would respond exactly to the need represented by the company.
The National Secretariats believe that the Ministry’s contribution was acceptable while, in our opinion, the company approach continues to be closed to comparison and was devoid of vision for the future of the group and production in Italy. For the reasons expressed above, we continue to express strong concern for the future of the Vibac group and for the maintenance of employment levels, we confirm the state of agitation with a block on overtime and the calling of meetings at all sites, continuing along the united path of mobilization .
Much awaited, after the demonstration before the Regional Council on Thursday 18 April and the related meeting with the vice-president of the Council Andrea Di Lucente, the summit took place this morning at the Ministry for Business and Made in Italy requested by the trade unions for the situation of Vibac of Termoli”. Failc-Confail also gave an interpretation of the outcome of the national ministerial table, with Giovanni Mercogliano, present at the meeting. «During the meeting, the strong concern was reiterated regarding the dismissal procedure announced by the company, which currently concerns 90 workers. The company stated that new products are being evaluated to be placed on the market and produced in the Termolese plant. It will take some time for the aforementioned project to be implemented, and this could lead to further reducing the number of redundancies.
In view of this, on the proposal of the Ministry, it would be appropriate to review the dismissal procedure to return with a new procedure – Law 234 and obtain a further twelve months of social safety nets which would allow us to have the necessary time to reposition ourselves on the market with the new products and to activate it Gol plan of the region for the training and relocation of redundant workers in local companies that require specific professional figures. The discussion table will continue both at the Ministry and in the Region.”
