Workers on strike at STMicroelectronics

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In May 2005 the workers of the Italian plants of STMicroelectronics went on strike to protest against the restructuring plan announced by the Italian-French multinational company which envisages 3,000 redundancies and the closure of some industrial plants. The strike was called by the setoral trade union organisations representing Italian metalworkers, Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl and Uilm-Uil, within the framework of an action day coordinated with the French metalworkers’ representatives.

The STMicroelectronics is an Italian-French multinational company which designs integrated semiconductor circuits. The company’s shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, on Euronext Paris and on the Italian stock exchange market. In 2004 the company’s net income was equal to USD 8.76 billion was net profits amounted to USD 601 billion.

STM employs about 49,500 workers all over the world. It has industrial plants located in Asia, France, Italy, United States, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Malta and Morocco. In Italy plants are located in Agrate - Milan (5,000 employees), in Catania (4,800 employees) and in Naples (600 employees).

In the beginning of may 2005, after the disappointing results of the first quarter of the year, which ended with USD 30 million deficit, the new president of STM, Carlo Bozotti, announced the launch of a major restructuring of the company which provides for the reduction of 3,000 jobs in STM plants, Asia excluded, before mid 2006, and the re-location of about 1,000 engineers operating in the research and development areas towards more competitive products.

The restructuring plan will cut down company’s costs by about USD 90 million starting from the fourth quarter of 2005. It will lead to the closure of the less productive plants and to the strengthening of the most profitable plants located in Asia. The company has, in fact, already started building a new productive plant in Wuxi City (China) which will be operative at the end of 2005.

The trade union organisations representing metalworkers affiliated to the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil), the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacato Lavotori, Cisl), the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil) and respectively the Federation of metalworkers (Federazione impiegati operai metallurgici, Fiom), the Italian federation of metalworkers’ (Federazione italiana metalmeccanici, Fim) and the Italian union of metalworkers (Unione italiana lavoratori metalmeccanici, Uilm) together with the company level trade union representatives (Rappresentanze sindacali unitarie, Rsu) called a four-hour strike, on 27 May 2005, in all the Italian sites of STMicroelectronics to protest against the announced restructuring plan.

According to the trade unions about 80-90% workers took part in the strike.

In Sicily 90% of workers went on strike for eight hours. In Catania 1,500 workers demonstrated in the streets. In Palermo workers held a sit-in in front of the city’s prefecture. Palermo, location STM Design Center, had already witnessed on 9 May 2005 a singular form of protest against the company’s decision of shutting down the design centre. Workers decided to donate their blood in favour of 'the future of high-tech of Palerm', and in order to give more visibility to their action of protest invited also the soccer players of Palermo Calcio to participate in the demonstration.

Workers’ and trade unions’ requests are addressed not only to the company management but also to the institutional actors. Danilo Sancito, provincial secretary of Fim-Cisl of Monza (Milan) asked to the municipal administration to 'request the active involvement of the institutions, of the local parliamentary and governmental actors for the consolidation of the research activities in the site of Agrate Brianza and for the safeguard of the Italian technological industry'.

In a joint press release, issued the day after the strike, the three national secretariats of Fim, Fiom and Cgil expressed their satisfaction with the results of the strike and voiced their concern about a company logic based only on the reduction of costs and employment. According to the trade unions in order to guarantee a future to STM, all programmed investments should be carries out and the new productions should be rapidly launched, inverting the current company strategy. The trade unions are convinced that the company should radically change its strategy, should guarantee productivity and employment by renouncing to 'the simple transfer of productions towards Asian countries and towards low labour costs countries'.

The strike was particularly relevant because, on the same day, similar actions were put in place by the French workers and by the French trade union organisations.

According to Giovanna Marano, regional secretary of Fiom-Cgil 'the participation of STM workers in the strike shows that there is coordination and collaboration between the Italian and French unions and that the multinational company will not be able to divide trade unions and workers putting them one against the other'.

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