a “historic” strike against the fall in production in Italy

Thousands of striking employees of the automobile giant Stellantis in Italy demonstrated on Friday October 18 in the streets of Rome to criticize the “disengagement” of the manufacturer of the peninsula and production in free fall. According to the unions, who called for a strike across the entire automotive sector, 20,000 employees of Stellantis and its suppliers demonstrated in the capital to demand guarantees on employment and the production of new models.

It is “a historic strike like there has not been in over forty years” in the factories of the former national flagship Fiat, assured the unions, citing participation rates on the various production sites oscillating between 63% and 100%, according to provisional data.

Stellantis Italy reported a significantly lower membership rate across its sites, averaging 8.8%, adding that “production has not been interrupted in the factories currently in operation”. The manufacturer reiterated its “firm determination to ensure continuity of production” of its sites.

The Italian manufacturer merged in 2014 with the American Chrysler, before joining forces with the French Peugeot-Citroën (PSA), giving birth in January 2021 to the Stellantis group. After three years of growth, Stellantis production in Italy suddenly declined again, falling by 31.7% to 387,600 vehicles in the first nine months of 2024, according to the metallurgical federation FIM-CISL. “This is the worst figure since 1956”assured Agence France-Presse (AFP) its secretary general, Ferdinando Uliano, who expects a production “less than 500,000 vehicles” for the whole year, compared to more than 751,000 in 2023.

Fiat 500 production suspended for a month and a half

Pressured by the nationalist government of Giorgia Meloni, the boss of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, nevertheless committed in July 2023 to increasing production to one million units annually by 2030, a goal which now seems out of reach . At issue: sales of electric vehicles in Europe, which have been slipping since the end of 2023, mainly due to a lack of affordable models, while Brussels has decreed a ban on the sale of thermal cars by 2035.

Stellantis announced on Wednesday that several of its Italian factories would be shut down again in November, citing “the decline in orders in the electric vehicle market in Europe”. In a symbolic act, production of the iconic Fiat 500 in an electric version at the Mirafiori factory, near Turin, was suspended in mid-September until 1^is November.

Former center of the golden age of Fiat, where the Maserati is also produced, Mirafiori “goes out slowly”Maurizio Oreggia, national automobile coordinator for the FIOM-CGIL union, told AFP. “The Maseratis, when they make them, it’s only seven a day”he lamented.

Carlos Tavares did not reassure anyone

Mirafiori employees have suffered periods of technical unemployment this year due to a drop in demand, but also to the delay in the government’s launch of bonuses for the purchase of electric vehicles. Rome also criticizes the Franco-Italian-American manufacturer for relocating its production to low-cost countries, to the detriment of Italian factories.

Summoned in mid-October for a hearing in the Italian Parliament, Carlos Tavares was unable to convince either the deputies or the unions, by requesting more subsidies and denouncing production costs that were too high in Italy. Since the merger between Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat Chrysler in 2021, Stellantis’ workforce in Italy has been reduced by more than 10,000 people, to around 40,000.

In France too, in the Poissy, Douvrin and Caen factories, days of partial unemployment have increased since the start of the year with the slowdown in the automobile market. Many employees are encouraged to find work elsewhere and Carlos Tavares did not reassure anyone at the Paris Motor Show, by not ruling out any factory closures.