Goodyear to close Latina plant

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The US multinational Goodyear has announced that, starting from February 2000, its Italian plant at Cisterna (Latina) will close and over 500 workers will thus be made redundant. The trade unions requested the suspension of the redundancy procedure and the opening of negotiations with the Ministry of Industry.

Goodyear, the US-based tyre-manufacturing multinational, has announced the closure of its plant at Cisterna (in the Latina province in the Lazio region, south of Rome) and the consequent redundancy of 549 employees. The plant will start to close down on 10 February 2000. The loss of jobs (probably amounting to 1,000, when other production activities linked to the plant are taken into account) will place the economic and social fabric of the province, already hard-hit by other industrial crises, under considerable strain. Finding jobs for the redundant workers will also be very difficult: 38.2% are aged between 40 and 50, 40% are over 50, and 50% of the families involved rely on only one income.

Up until 1992, Cisterna was one of the the areas that could benefit from incentives provided by the so-called ""Cassa del Mezzogiorno, a fund established during the 1950s to foster the economy of southern Italy. Goodyear has benefited from both economic and tax incentives from the fund, totalling ITL 166 billion.

The president of Goodyear's Italian operations, Antonio Corsi, responded to a request from the trade unions to suspend its decision, by saying that it is now too late to stop the redundancies, and that the reasons for the closure lie in the company's diminished competitiveness, caused by high Italian labour costs and the high processing costs of the Cisterna plant (15% more than Goodyear's French and German plants). The drawbacks of the Cisterna plant are said to relate not only to local conditions, but also involve the capacities of the Italian government to deal with economic globalisation, relationships with multinational companies and foreign investment.

The trade unions want to negotiate on the closure and are willing to concede a great deal of flexibility, provided that the company stops the redundancy procedure. The Minister of Industry, Enrico Letta, and under-secretary Gianfranco Morgando are also trying to intervene to resolve the situation. On 5 January 2000, Mr Morgando met the trade unions, the major of Cisterna, the president of the Lazio region and the president of Goodyear's Italian operations. Other meetings were foreseen for mid-January, involving the company's European head, Silvani Valenci.

Renato Brunetta, a member of the European Parliament for the Forza Italia political party, stated during a television interview that, before closing down the company, it is necessary to try to reorganise and restructure it, and for this purpose there are several financing possibilities, both at national and at European level, which have not been taken into account.

Sergio D'Antoni, secretary general of the Cisl trade union confederation, invited the government to make clear to Goodyear that Italy should not only be a market but also a production location, stressing that, with 17% of the tyre market, the company sells a lot more than it produces in Italy. Luigi Angeletti, the confederal secretary of the Uil confederation, asked for a deeper commitment by the government: "Goodyear cannot abandon our country with just a redundancy letter because the government does not complain as the other European governments do." Giovanni Guerisoli, confederal secretary of Cisl, stressed the relationship between governments and multinational companies, recalling that Barilla– the famous Italian food company – has been obliged to open a plant in the USA in order to sell its products on the American market.