Giordy71@
00venerdì 16 marzo 2012 09:28
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne on Friday reiterated the automaker's intention to carry out its ambitious investment program in Italy at a meeting with Premier Mario Monti on Friday.
But Marchionne is said also to have told Monti that it was imperative that the firm is able to produce cars at competitive costs, which requires greater labor flexibility.
The meeting between Monti and Marchionne, also attended by Fiat Chairman John Elkann, was arranged following concerns voiced by unions that Fiat was focusing more on its alliance with US automaker Chrysler, in which it holds a 58.5% stake, and was not actively applying its 20-billion-euro investment plan in Italy.
Coming out of his meeting with Monti, Marchionne said their talks had been ''perfect''.
Unions and some political figures have also been concerned about the mixed signals the CEO has sent about the possibility of shutting down two of Fiat's five plants in Italy.
Last month Marchionne said Fiat may be forced to shut two of its five plants in Italy if it cannot use them to produce cars to export to the American market at a competitive cost and that this meant ensuring that these plants can be utilized ''in full and flexible capacity''.
''Our intentions are to embark on an industrial policy which opens opportunities for our plants in Italy, if they can achieve a level of productivity that will allow us to compete on an international level, to export to other countries. Fiat is ready to offer Italy the enormous opportunities being created in America, but we can only do this under conditions that are extremely clear ," he added Marchionne later added that Fiat was ''maintaining its commitments'' in Italy and at its Mirafiori plant in Turin ''we are working at lightning speed (to revamp the plant) and this is why we have announced we will also be producing Jeep vehicles there starting next year''.
Speaking this month on the sidelines of the Geneva automobile show, Marchionne reiterated there was ''no threat to the plants in Italy. We have already begun to invest in Pomigliano and for Mirafiori we have confirmed the timetable for its restructuring and production there will resume in 2013. As for our other plants, they are involved in other products on which we have nothing to say. Thus there is no threat and we are moving ahead with our business plan'' Labor flexibility was also at the center of an address he recently made to the European Automaker Association ACEA, of which he is chairman.
'If I could do just one thing, most likely it would be to create a flexible labor system capable of managing supply and demand, he said.
''I am convinced that the conditions exist to create positive flexibility. What we need to do is break with mentalities of the past. ''If we continue to insist that what we had and built in the past is essential for the future, when in reality it has become an obstacle to a nation's industrial growth, then it is clear that we are not going to go far''.
Observers believe Marchionne may be 'playing hardball' to get unions to agree to greater labor flexibility.
Marchionne and Elkann arrived at their meeting with the premier abroad a new Fiat Panda, the automaker's best-selling city hatchback car the production of which Fiat recently moved from Poland to its plant in Pomigliano d'Arco, near Naples.
Friday's meeting came on the day that Fiat was forced to shut down three of its five plants in Italy due to a truckers' strike that has blocked the arrival of materials and parts, as well as the delivery of finished cars to dealerships.
A statement from Fiat said the strike was "de facto paralyzing automotive logistics, especially in central-southern Italy" and added that the labor action had already resulted in delaying production by some 20,000 vehicles and that it would be "very difficult to recover this during the year". Friday's closures involved Fiat's Pomigliano, Cassino and Sevel plants, while the Mirafiori and Melfi factories were already closed in order to allow them to be revamped to produce new models. Fiat has blamed previous strikes for its drop in sales and market share in Europe last month and said a further 10% drop was expected for March.