Prato, 19 June 2024 – Il textile district Prato is dealing with a worry that does not give up, fueled by exceptional conditions, from the outbreak of Covid to the high cost of energy and raw materials, to the war scenarios between Europe and the Middle East and the recent flood which caused damage to many businesses in the territory. A difficult situation in which production has been slowing down or reversing the trend for a couple of years even for the more fortunate sectors, such as spinning, while orders stagnate.
It is in this context that the collective dismissal procedure opened, according to the provisions of the relevant legislation (number 223 of 1991), for 30 out of 130 employees by Lineapiù Italia Of Bisenzio fieldsleader in the knitting yarn sector.
The unions – Filctem Cgil, Femca Cisl and Uiltec – have already taken the issue into their own hands, addressing it with workers in meetings. Meanwhile, a negotiating table has been opened at which the trade union organizations and the company sit. “The problem exists and must be addressed in the best possible way – he says Juri Meneghetti, secretary Filctem Cgil Prato Pistoia – We are invoking the institute of social safety nets: in particular we ask for extraordinary redundancy payments or the application of solidarity. The workers said they were worried, as is normal.”
A decision, that of opening the dismissal procedure for 30 people, which would be motivated by the complicated situation and the crisis that is gripping the world of textiles and fashion, even affecting the luxury sector.
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L’agency at the moment he prefers not to talk. “We are at the negotiating table with the company – he confirms Qamil Zejnati of Uiltec – . We are in the initial phase and our objective will be the use of shock absorbers. The district has had a 58%-60% reduction in personnel since the crisis began and as unions in recent years we have managed to manage these critical issues by developing a method to stem them and using social safety nets”.
Also Ingrid Grasso of the Femca Cisl recalls that the unions are working together in this phase of negotiations “to find the most appropriate solution that impacts as little as possible on social stability. If the response to the social safety net proposal is positive, we will try to go through the crisis until the general situation can calm down and then keep the working relationship active”. The goal for trade unionists would be to arrive at a solution before the summer holidays.
A general criticality that is set in a district that reaches summer 2024 after complex years. As data from the Study Center reveal Confindustria Northern Tuscany on industrial production: the first quarter of 2024 in comparison with the same quarter of 2023 is at -7.8%. The greatest contribution to this negative result comes from the -9.8% of textiles, in line with the performance of the same sector at a national level. The decrease also comes from metalworking (-9%), which includes textile machinery, and clothing-knitwear (-8.3%). And on the specific spinning front, a note by Confindustria Moda – Centro Studi per Smi (Italian fashion system) in recent months highlights a reversal in 2023 of the growth trend recorded in the previous two years in all sectors with a minus sign both for production and exports.
