«No one – says Bucci – wants to question the steel of Cornigliano; indeed, we wish there was a company that works three times as much. But if there are areas where, for five and a half years, not a single person has been seen, it is our duty as administrators to ensure that they are put to good use”.
An addendum to the Ilva program agreement
Those areas, moreover, are regulated by the 2005 program agreement for Cornigliano, which allocates those spaces to the steel supply chain. «That agreement – adds Bucci – was something fundamental for the territory and we have no intention of touching it; the way, probably, will be to make an addendum to the agreement. I must say that the first who did not respect it, however, were the top management of the company which, based on that agreement, should now employ 1,200 people and instead employs 950, many of whom are on layoffs».
Leaving large portions of the Cornigliano area unused, Bucci underlines, «is a mistake that we can no longer tolerate. I say this thinking, above all, of the job opportunities that are being lost, of the possibility of building wealth where today we have nothing but deserted spaces. The municipal administration’s commitment is to attract companies to Genoa: in the face of so many requests and the strong interest that exists in investing in this area, we must be able to provide adequate spaces».
Expression of interest open
That of the four companies, Falteri points out, is «an expression of open interest which, therefore, will be able to see other companies join (there must, in fact, be a public announcement, ndr)”. But it is, he continues, «a written commitment on new hires for the development of a predictive logistics hub, as the logic of the future asks us. The former Ilva areas, heavily infrastructured and served by the proximity of connections by sea, iron and air, are today underutilized, with a very low occupational density”.
With the new hub, he concludes, “in a portion of unused areas, and which would not interfere with the activity of the steel mills, there would be a multiplier effect on employment, at least five times, compared to the working density of the area in question” .