The necessary authorizations to restructure the primary aluminum factory in Portovesme, and relaunch production, do not arrive and Sider Alloys starts the procedure for the layoffs of employees. Almost a never ending story for the smelter that the Italian-Swiss company took over from Alcoa in 2018.
The project
The project for the relaunch of the plant, which until the electrolytic cells shutdown (in October 2012) produced 150 thousand tons of primary aluminum in blocks and billets a year, is still grappling with the authorization process. The plant restart program provides for an overall investment of approximately 150 million euros, of which 8 are non-repayable, 84 financed at a subsidized rate, 20 made available by Alcoa and the rest to the new owner, in addition to the insertion of about 370 direct workers and 70 contract workers, plus any other 50 in case of restarting an additional plant (the so-called “anode factory”). The time schedule, even if within the industrial relevance there are over one hundred people called back to service and some works are in progress, is very late.
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Long times
Once the question relating to the contract for the supply of energy has been overcome, the new obstacle to determine the lengthening of the times is represented by the so-called bureaucratic issues. Precisely the authorization aspect now worries the company and the unions. The first difficulties emerge on October 21 of last year when the company receives a communication from the Region in which it is highlighted the fact that for the interventions to be made it is necessary to go through the Environmental Impact Assessment. The procedure starts, in the meantime the regional regulation is launched that establishes the Paur (single regional administrative measure) which should have faster times than those of the Environmental Impact Assessment. On July 28, the services conference ends with an update.
The company announces the Cig
The company announced the announcement: “without certainty about the times, important decisions will be made”. And a few days later the procedure for the layoffs of the people currently employed within the plant also starts. During the meeting relating to the preparatory procedure for the release of the Cig, and in which the trade unions take part in addition to the Regional Labor Councilor Alessandra Zedda, a suspension is torn. Or rather, a postponement. All in function of a meeting scheduled for August 5 with the president and the competent regional councilors and preparatory to soliciting rapid and certain times regarding the current practice. Preliminary investigation which, as reiterated by the company and the unions “should not go beyond the first days of September”. The meeting, however, skips and is updated at the last moment “on a date to be determined”. “It is clear that in the face of this situation I can only continue with the procedure for activating the redundancy fund – says Eros Brega, head of legal and institutional affairs at Sider Alloys -, this dilation of time worries us both for the workers and for the same project that we are trying to carry out with a lot of commitment and strength ».
The trade unions
The representatives of the trade unions do not hide the concern about the affair. “We live in a paradoxical situation – says Bruno Usai, from the Fiom secretariat in south-western Sardinia -. After so many years of battles we have managed to have a serious investor and a funded relaunch project and we risk losing everything because there is never certainty about the timing. And every day spent without producing aluminum is a day at a loss ”. Stressing that “we are not looking for shortcuts or favoritism”, the trade unionist launches an appeal to the Region: “we ask for a commitment to ensure the certainty of the times, only in this way can an important sector of metallurgy in Italy be saved”.