Three thousand people without a job anymore because the company earns, yes, but not enough. And so he moves the factory where producing is cheaper. The rush to relocate does not slow down, the last in chronological order is the closure of the Saga Coffee in Bologna, which brings the business between Bergamo and Romania, leaving behind a trail of 220 layoffs. To keep together all the cases that cross Italy is that the property belongs to multinationals or investment funds and that it is not a matter of corporate crises: the market is there, perhaps evolving due to the double ecological and digital transition, but investor logic looks elsewhere.
On the government table lies a decree against relocations, very harsh in its first formulation by the Minister of Labor Andrea Orlando and the Deputy Minister for Economic Development Alessandra Todde, who wanted penalties of up to 5% of turnover for those who leave without being in crisis . After the double no collected by Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, now Pd and 5S will try to bring the measure back into the folds of the Budget. Political space is limited, but they will try in the Chamber with the soft version of the decree: no more sanctions (considered a disincentive to invest in Italy), but an obligation for companies to communicate their decision to leave at least three months in advance and to commit to the conversion of abandoned factories and the relocation of those who stay at home. The goal is to avoid new dismissals via email, as at the Gkn in Florence, where a judge was needed to say that this is not the case and to block everything. But only for some time, because the American fund Melrose has not changed its mind: it will sit at the table, but to reiterate that it will leave.
Acceleration
“We weren’t in crisis, but overnight they told us that they bring everything to Romania,” says Antonio Ghirardi, trade unionist at Tinken, 105 employees to produce bearings for industry in the Brescia area. There is a commitment by the American multinational to favor a conversion of the factory that will save all the workers if a new investor arrives, but the substance does not change: the only concrete concession is a year of layoffs. “The pandemic was the great accelerator of a phenomenon that unfortunately could already be glimpsed before – explains Silvia Spera, who sits at the tables of the Ministry of Economic Development for the secretariat of the CGIL -. The cases are increasing because there are epochal transformations affecting entire sectors, such as the automotive sector struggling with electrification ». The bill also for household appliances and white goods, other victims of the great pandemic crisis: via the Riello from breaking latest news, the Elica from Ancona, the Saga Coffee from Bologna.
«In most cases they are not even delocalizations in the strict sense – adds Michele De Palma, secretary of Fiom Cgil -. No new plants are opened abroad: funds and multinationals basically do nothing but reorganize the business, moving production lines to existing factories to make more profits or unpack and resell. The issue of corporate social responsibility is simply not taken into consideration. It’s the Far West ».
The investments you need
If the anti-relocation decree does not take off, Economic Development has tried to put a piece of it with the business-saving fund, wanted by Todde herself, which has identified a lifesaver that tastes of old: the State’s entry into the capital of companies destined to disappear or, in some cases like Corneliani’s fashion, to emigrate abroad. The operational arm is Invitalia, engaged in seven projects which, according to Mise, are worth 2,000 jobs. «But the true protection of workers, in the face of the great productive transformations taking place, is done by investing in training and human capital – observes Francesco Seghezzi, president of the Adapt Foundation -. More severe rules are welcome so as not to be fooled by big investors, but the real need is to attract them here and create the conditions for them not to leave, not to punish them ». –
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