3 April, 2012Italian workers reach an agreement with Alcoa to keep their enterprise in Sardinia open for one more year. Workers hope that a new owner will acquire and re-launch the site.
ITALY: Negotiations lasted more than twelve hours before an agreement was reached in the Ministry of Economic Development on March 29, 2012. Italian workers of the global giant aluminum producer Alcoa achieved a temporary reprieve. The Alcoa site in Portovesme (Sardinian province of Carbonia Iglesias) will remain up and running until the end of the year.
The deal was made thanks to a strong mobilization of workers, their unions and civil society organizations. IMF Italian affiliates Fim-Cisl, Fiom-Cgil and Uilm-Uil played a major role in the process.
The signed agreement to be approved by a vote of the workers obliges Alcoa to keep production at the enterprise until December 31, 2013. However the operations at the site will stop already after October 31, 2012, if there is no other group which will acquire the site and restart the production. The government is considering different incentives for a new potential buyer including ways to find a solution for a cost effective electric energy supply.
The deal is a temporary solution and there is still a risk that the site may be closed by the beginning of 2013. 1,500 workers and their families are affected. For the Sardinia region, one of the poorest economic areas in Italy, unemployment of so many will have a devastating impact on the local community.