CASALE MONFERRATO. Since yesterday 169 workers no longer have extraordinary layoffs. It had been requested in February 2020 for the redundancies of the OMC, Officine Meccaniche Cerutti di Casale, and Cpe, Cerutti Packaging Equipment of Vercelli, which went bankrupt last year.
And in a few days, on March 27, another 130 from the Cerutti Group will be in the same condition. “We are close to a turning point,” Maurizio Cantello, Fiom, said yesterday at the meeting, reporting what happened the day before with the curatorship and with the question time in the Chamber. “Minister Orlando said that there was no request for further layoffs – Cantello added -. The “master” must request it, which in this case is the court. This is why we consider it essential to meet the judge on Wednesday 24th ».
For that day the garrison must be under the court of Vercelli. The trade unionists, the RSUs like Luca Barbero are asking for it, lighting a little hope with the possibility of requesting layoffs for all 280 workers “because, if accepted, it is also retroactive.”
Like a dog chasing its tail, if the court receives an ok from the judge, which the curators are willing to endorse for layoffs, the way would open for the interministerial table at the Mise and the Ministry of Labor. At the end of the tunnel on May 3 as the last deadline for offers for the company. «Cerutti is not cooked – Cantello remarked – We cannot allow it to fail. This would be followed by others. You have lasted five weeks in the garrison, I am proud of you ».
A mathematical account of the debts accumulated over the years was made by Ivan Terranova, Fiom di Vercelli: «The cost of labor had an impact of only 15%, so the errors were not made by the employees. We need to look at a recapitalization of the company, re-establish those crisis tables that were held in the past to look at a different future, because we cannot continue to stem one crisis after another ».
“I joined Cerutti in 1995 – testified RSU Luca Barbero – and my parents were happy, they said it was better than a state job, we still have to fight”. Alberto Pastorello, Uilm argued this “even if at this moment the morale is underground”.
Solidarity came from Epta with a fundraiser that Calogero Intermaggio and Stefania Deconti brought to the workers in a piggy bank with a thousand promises. “We are proud of what we have achieved in this company, the Cerutti name has had a worldwide resonance – stated Piero Baà – This is why we are angry at thinking of entrepreneurs who are waiting for the company to fail in order to take over it with two pennies”.
“It is difficult to be optimistic in this situation – says Massimo Molino – but we will fight until the end as we have done so far”. But how can we put our strengths together and start again? Maybe a cooperative, with what funding? All premature, remains a week of anxiety and meals eaten in the cold.