A permanent national table, with direction entrusted to the Puglia Region, on the maintenance and production diversification for Leonardo’s Grottaglie plant. This is what was requested and obtained today by the metalworkers’ unions in Bari, during the meeting called by the president of the regional task force for employment Leo Caroli, in the presence of the regional councilor for industrial crises Triggiani and the director of the Economic Development Department Berlingerio , in which however the company did not participate. The meeting is preparatory to the one on the 24th in Rome at the Unindustria headquarters with the top management of Leonardo spa, the RSU and the national and territorial secretariats of Fim Cisl, Fiom CGIL and Uilm which will have to address the issue of the 1,500 employees at risk, including direct and induced, of the Grottaglie plant. One of the three with which Leonardo is present in Puglia, the other two in Foggia with the aerostructures division (like Grottaglie), Brindisi with the helicopter division and Taranto with defense electronics. And it follows the massive strike organized by the unions on Thursday 13 June outside the Grottaglie site, in which over 90% of the workforce took part.
“In a united manner like Fim, Fiom and Uilm we have posed the real issues that are at the center of the critical issues of the Grottaglie plant, today there are two things to record, a negative one which is in continuity with the past, the guilty absence of Leonardo which continues the path of little institutional transparency, little inclusiveness and collaboration. The second positive is a different determination of the Puglia Region which shared the desire to have a national but Puglia-directed table with the competent ministries to bind Leonardo to diversify production as well as think about a national reorganization which is what as Fim, Fiom and Uilm have been asking for some time. Now let’s look at the meeting on June 24th with the same company.” This is what was declared at the end of the meeting by Davide Sperti, general secretary of Uilm Taranto and Gianni Ricci, general secretary of Uil Puglia.
“Two issues have clearly come to the table in the Region today: the absence of the company, which still demonstrates little transparency, lacks institutional respect and continues not to collaborate, giving a signal that is disrespectful towards unions and workers – declared the secretary of Fiom CGIL Taranto Francesco Brigati at the end of the Bari summit -. The positive data, however, is the desire of the Puglia Region to open a permanent national table with the ministries responsible for the maintenance and diversification of production for Leonardo’s Grottaglie plant. On June 24th we will have a new meeting in Rome with the company, to understand the company’s real commitments, and to find an immediate solution that avoids the closure of the site for four months, as well as requiring planning and production solidity to be obtained through a reorganization and restructuring of the company”. During today’s summit it also emerged that the cohesion funds available to the Puglia Region are difficult for Leonardo to use, which however has already declared to the trade unions at the time that it has no intention of using public funds. “We therefore asked the Puglia Region to carry out a verification on compliance with the program agreements signed at the time between the regional body and the company in 2018 and 2019 and a focus on related companies, given that those who would pay the greatest consequences of a production stoppage continued over time would be the workers of these companies, in fact the weakest in the entire supply chain” concluded Pasquale Caniglia Rsu Fiom Cgil.
The dispute in recent months has seen a crescendo of increasingly negative news since the beginning of the year. Culmination of the union meeting with Leonardo SPA on May 31st, during which the company communicated the managerial decision to suspend production activities for several months, perhaps four, without specifying the time limits of this decision. Confirming the serious difficulties that Boeing is experiencing which, in fact, resulted, from March to May 2024, in a difference of less than eight sections withdrawn compared to the expected plan, generating a total storage of 46 pairs of sections stopped inside the plant. As regards the new plan, the company representatives stated that it provides for 55 deliveries in 2024 compared to 87 deliveries expected, 45 deliveries for the year 2024 compared to 72 expected. Highlighting the need to postpone the break-even point of the budget to 2026. A situation, the current one, which demonstrates once again how an effective and far-sighted production diversification plan can no longer be postponed to overcome single-order and single-contract orders, which for unions cannot only concern the advancement of new activities (Vertical VX4, Proteus, Euromale).
On June 24th in Rome the situation will have to be further addressed and clarified.
(read the article https://www.corriereditaranto.it/2024/06/13/adesso-leonardo-deve-dare-rispetti/)
