The negotiation between Witor’s, a Cremona-based company specialized in the production of chocolate owned by 21Investimenti and Pernigotti, controlled by the Turkish Toksoz Group, seems to have ended in a dead end. A few days after the formalization of the purchase proposal of the historic Italian chocolate brand at Mise, the table has jumped. In a note, the top management of Witor’s let it be known that Pernigotti Spa has decided to unilaterally suspend the negotiations, “citing the complexities that have arisen in relations with the workers and trade unions”.
For their part, however, the unions deny any kind of friction with respect to the potential industrial investor, so much so that they asked, in the hours in which the news of the halt to the negotiation spread, a meeting at Witor’s to try to clarify a situation that is has been dragging on for years. “The strong concern remains – underlines Michele Tartaglione, national secretary of Uila Uil who signed the request together with Fai Cisl and Flai Cgil – for the future of Pernigotti workers, especially with the approaching, in June, of the term of the layoffs. We will ask to be summoned by the Mise as soon as possible: there is no more time to waste ».
At this point, for the 56 employees – 26 workers and about thirty administrative staff – the situation becomes more uncertain by the hour. The extraordinary redundancy fund for reorganization closes next June 30, among other things inspectors from the Ministry of Labor visited the plant and heard the RSU. In fact, after the agreement for the industrial relaunch of the Novi Ligure plant signed last July, with the hypothesis of an investment of 4 million to adapt machinery and production areas, no commitment was honored. On the contrary. Part of the machinery has been brought over and the resumption of production, under current conditions, is almost impossible.
“In view of the period of cash for reorganization – explains Raffaele Benedetto of the Flai CGIL – has only provided for the retirement but without other activities, we are waiting for the ministry to say something and clarify the situation”. The theme, therefore, is once again the real intentions of the Toksoz family and the desire to sell the brand, the central knot of the entire industrial affair. And the suspicion is that the ownership has simply been taking its time all these months without really having the willingness to sell the brand on the market.
«One year later, Pernigotti has stopped, has left the large-scale distribution and is no longer available on the shelves and the factory is in bad shape. They tell us that the property would like to ask for another cig but the public money must actually serve to protect workers and save or help companies, not to buy time “says Benedetto, who adds:” We are embarrassed by the fact that an agreement with a potential industrial investor who would gradually absorb the workers and build a new factory ».