What future for the paper mill? Reno De Medici of Villa Santa Lucia? A new and long ordeal like the one already experienced starting from July of last year or just simple stoppages that should not worry the workers about their future? The answer is expected from the Rdm Group management for this morning: at 10, at the Unindustria headquarters in Cassino, there will be a meeting between the top management of the Villa Santa Lucia paper mill and the secretaries of the trade unions of the category who last June 13, following the second stoppage in a few days, had asked the company to clarify what is happening in the factory. After a few days, the response from the company management arrived and today will be the occasion to take stock of the Reno De Medici paper mill of Villa Santa Lucia. On the eve of the meeting, the unions are cautious. They do not give in to pessimism, at the same time, however, they expect clear answers.
“We knew that after the long stop last year, the restart would not be easy – says Patrizia Fieri of Slc-Cgil – precisely for this reason, in light of the two stops that occurred in the month of June, as the warehouses were full given the few orders, we intend to understand what the situation of the company is with respect to the orders and, therefore, with respect to the market. We also need to plan the summer break, at the moment there are no communications on this matter. It will be an opportunity to have a 360° picture”.
THE KNOT
The unions’ real concern is related to social safety nets. Why? About a year ago, on July 28, 2023, following the Acque nere investigation, the seals were placed on Reno De Medici: for the entire second half of last year, the workers were placed on redundancy pay and the factory remained closed. The plant was only released in November, but with the issue of the disposal of the so-called primary sludge, other months of work were lost and only in February of this year, after the large demonstration that the workers organized on the streets of the city of Cassino, the issue was resolved and after more than seven months the factory gates reopened and things slowly returned to normal. For over a whole semester, however, while waiting for things to return to normal, it was necessary to resort to other redundancy pay, also thanks to the help of the Lazio region. Now, if the company were to communicate today that, given the situation of the orders, production will not be able to return to full capacity, it means that it will be necessary to ask for other social safety nets and, having now almost exhausted the hours of redundancy pay, the company could resort to ‘solidarity’ by having the workers work on rotation, as already happens in Stellantis and in some factories in the automotive supply chain: this would mean, for the approximately 300 workers of the paper mill, having increasingly reduced paychecks at the end of the month.
Alberto Simone
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© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
