Leonardo; Cantonetti-Sperti (Uilm): “Good arrival of the tiltrotor in Grottaglie thanks to the workers’ struggles but we await further information in the next meeting”

Rome – “In today’s meeting with representatives of Leonardo, expected to have certainties on the critical condition impacting the Grottaglie plant due to the violent Boeing crisis, we received information that outlines potential positive aspects but at the same time we record elements that still see a distance especially in the method. As important news for the Apulian site, following the confirmation of what is already in planning albeit in the embryonic and prototype phase, the arrival of the final line of the AW609 convertiplane has been announced. This is a project of the Helicopter Division which has both government and private customers: an aircraft which is in the certification phase. Series production has not started and there is a desire to bring it to the Grottaglie site. It is news that we welcome and that really demonstrates the start of a real transformation of the site.” This was declared by Bruno Cantonetti, National Secretary, and Davide Sperti, General Secretary of Uilm Taranto, after the meeting in Rome, in the presence of the Bortoli Aerostructures Division Manager and HR Manager Leonardo SPA Liotti.

“The negative note – underline Cantonetti and Sperti – is that Leonardo wants to confirm again the suspension of activity for four months at the Grottaglie site, again due to the need to reduce the fuselage production buffer created, therefore the production carried out for the warehouse in the past months and years. On this issue, we confirm our opposition also because Boeing’s new Z60 production plan, which provides for five withdrawals per month, currently allows the possibility of foreseeing a reduction in activities without suspending them”.

“We believe that a different solution can also be found on this point – they add – which does not involve the suspension of activities, but a solution that meets the needs of keeping the site open and protecting all workers, including those in related industries without any distinction between people”.

“We ask – they conclude – for a solution which, on the one hand, manages to reconcile the need to dispose of the warehouse’s production and recover spaces also useful for diversification and, on the other, meets the needs of continuing to work, albeit in a reduced. Today’s meeting concluded with a commitment to update the table within a week.”