Cold shower for the former Ilva. Acciaierie d'Italia announced a stop at the plants in Taranto, Genoa and Novi Ligure on the same day as the meeting at Palazzo Chigi between the government and unions on the future of the company. During the meeting, the undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, Alfredo Mantovano, indicated that the government intends to bring to the next Council of Ministers a decree-law which contains social protection for workers and which aims at a redundancy fund not for closure of activities, but in a continuity perspective. The government's objective is green steel production with a Dri plant and electric furnaces, as long as it is part of a credible industrial plan, explained the undersecretary.
Meanwhile, starting from tomorrow, 9 October, all production activities of the plants in the hot area of the former Ilva plant in Taranto will be suspended, states Acciaierie d'Italia in As, in a note sent to the prefect, local authorities and law enforcement agencies. The decision is traced back to compliance with the decree of the Court of Appeal of Milan of 27 July, after the rejection, notified on 5 October, of the request for suspension of execution. The company is also applying for social safety nets. The systems will be kept in heating mode, "hot stand-by", pending the decision of the Court of Cassation. But "in the absence" of a favorable provision, heating maintenance will also be "suspended" on October 24th, with the hot area definitively shutting down by October 25th, "without any possibility" of a subsequent restart.
"A few hours after the government's meeting with the unions, Acciaierie d'Italia hastens to announce the activation of the workers' redundancy fund with a timing that has the only effect of aggravating the tension in an already dramatic situation and which risks impacting only on the workers and the territories where they work", warns the president of the Puglia Region, Antonio Decaro, hoping that the government "can avoid this hypothesis". Furthermore, Adi also announced that the "general temporary shutdown" of the former Ilva factories in Genoa and Novi Ligure will take place by "next November 15th". "The announcement of a lockout is completely unacceptable", thunder the mayors of Genoa and Novi Ligure, Silvia Salis and Rocchino Muliere. "It is an unsustainable prospect for workers, for Genoa and Novi Ligure and for the entire steel supply chain of our country", denounces Salis.
"The announced closure of the former Ilva factories in Cornigliano, Novi Ligure and Racconigi represents very serious news, not only for Liguria and Piedmont, but for the entire Italian steel supply chain, which is strategic for the industrial future of the country", say Marco Bucci, president of the Liguria Region, and Alberto Cirio, president of the Piedmont region. Entering Palazzo Chigi for the table with the government, the unions made it clear that the closure of Ex Ilva is "unacceptable". "The workers have shown a great sense of responsibility and therefore we should avoid paying the price for choices and mistakes that are not made by the workers from being passed on to all former Ilva workers", said the Fiom-Cgil general secretary, Michele de Palma. For USB, a country's industrial strategy "is not decided by the judiciary". "The government is very skilled at moving within this type of narrative, we know that this has become a great alibi for not talking about the real problems and not talking about what is happening at the moment in Taranto", underlined the member of the USB national executive, Sasha Colautti.
