The sentence handed down on September 20 by the Florence court opened a new chapter in the clash between the workers of GKN – the automobile components factory in Campi Bisenzio (Florence) – and the British investment fund Melrose. Judge Anita Maria Brigida Davia responded to the appeal presented by the Fiom-Cgil union and defined the multinational’s behavior as anti-union, forcing it to revoke the layoffs. However, Melrose has made it known that he wants to proceed with the closure of the Campi Bisenzio plant and is ready to appeal against the court decision.
The case of the 422 workers dismissed by mail
At the center of the legal dispute is the dismissal of 422 workers from the Tuscan branch of Gkn Driveline announced by the London multinational on 9 July with an email and without any prior confrontation with the unions, in violation of the agreement signed in 2020 with the representatives trade unions. The property had sent the dismissal emails on a day off office given to workers, but then had to deal with the reaction of its employees. Within a few hours, the workers called a permanent garrison in front of the GKN headquarters, thanks also to the solidarity shown immediately by colleagues, activists, citizens and local politics. On 12 July the mayor of Campi Bisenzio prohibited heavy vehicles from approaching the company, to prevent Melrose from proceeding with the dismantling of the Tuscan headquarters.
The objective of the fund is to relocate Gkn Driveline to Eastern Europe to save on labor costs and increase shareholder profits, closing a company that is in fact far from the risk of bankruptcy and which according to estimates would have continued to grow despite the damage caused by the pandemic.
The Campi Bisenzio plant is one of the most avant-garde in the sector of components for the automotive and aerospace industries, thanks also to the development plans for industry 4.0 carried out by the Italian government in recent years and the related tax reliefs guaranteed by the agency. Today, however, state-of-the-art industrial machinery and robots worth millions of euros, also purchased with public grants, are standing still waiting to be transported outside Italy.
A law against relocations
The ruling of the court of Florence represents a victory for trade unions and workers, but does not completely avert the risk of closure. The company is now required to open a discussion table with workers, trade union representatives and the ministry of economic development, but it can still proceed with the layoffs in compliance with the deadlines set by the national contract. The crux of the matter is the Italian legislation, which does not have the tools to avoid the closure of a production plant or to block or penalize companies that relocate to Europe.
The latter issue has been at the center of the government’s agenda for weeks, but so far very little progress has been made due to a split in the government majority on the possible sanctions to be imposed on companies that decide to leave Italy and relocate its factories abroad. However, the draft under discussion does not satisfy the GKN factory collective, which at the beginning of September presented an eight-point plan against relocations drawn up by a group of labor lawyers with the direct involvement of the workers themselves. Meanwhile, the workers and trade unionists refused to appear at the meeting convened by the company on 21 September, declaring that they were available for discussion only in the institutional setting and in the presence of the minister of economic development.
The GKN affair is not just a political-industrial question. A solidarity movement was born around the workers of the Tuscan company that went beyond regional borders, bringing more than twenty thousand people to Florence on 18 September. The streets of the city were crossed by a long procession asking the government for greater social protection and an intervention in defense of the right to work, which is less and less guaranteed and increasingly precarious. In a few months the struggle of the workers of the GKN thus assumed a national and transversal character, uniting different realities around a single slogan: “Let’s rise up”.
Edited by Futura D’Aprile
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