Unions protest at further job cuts in energy company

In January 2007, the energy company Eni announced its intention to cut 400 out of a total of 1,200 jobs at its petrochemicals complex at Gela in Sicily. The dismissals take place between 2007 and 2010, during which time the company will put into action a plan to modernise the Sicilian refinery through investments in technology and automation. The trade unions reacted immediately by threatening a general strike and inviting the company management to rethink its strategy.

Company profile

Founded in 1953 as a public group and later privatised in 1998, Eni is one of the most influential integrated energy companies in the world. Eni has a series of subsidiaries, including, for example, Agip, Eni Power, Italgas and Snam Rete Gas. The main sectors in which the company operates are: hydrocarbon research and production; refining and marketing of petrol products; supply, transport, distribution and marketing of natural gas; production and sale of electricity; and design and construction of infrastructures such as petrochemicals plants, pipelines, platforms and drills. Operating in 70 countries, with a workforce of 73,258 employees, Eni is the sixth largest petrol group in the world involved in the daily production of hydrocarbons. In 2005, the company had a turnover of €73.8 billion, equal to 5.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), which makes it by far the largest company in Italy.

Plan to cut jobs

In January 2007, Eni announced its intention to cut 400 of the total 1,200 jobs at its petrochemicals complex at Gela in the south of Sicily

The plants, located within the Gela complex in the Caltanissetta province, mainly affected by this restructuring process are:

• the petrochemicals plant, currently employing 1,080 employees, and with a significant regional impact on the labour market as an equal number of jobs have been created in subcontracted and outsourced activities;

• the polymer plant (‘Etilene 2’), which employs 120 workers and is owned by Polimeri Europa, the Eni company producing chemical compounds (polymers) and plastic (polyethylene) materials.

Restructuring plan

For some time, the company and the trade unions have been engaged in talks on the productive upgrading of the petrochemicals complex at Gela. The plant currently has two areas of production, namely the petrol refinery, where the majority of workers are employed, and the chemicals production department, where polymers and plastics are produced.

On 19 December 2006, the initial step in upgrading the complex was made, when Eni inaugurated its aquifer treatment plant within the Gela complex, the first of its kind in Italy. The plant allows for the purification and recovery or reuse of subsoil water beneath the petrochemicals plant which has been polluted by the use of hydrocarbons.

On 17 January 2007, at a meeting with the trade unions aimed at planning for further development measures, the company stated that planned investments for the next four years (2007–2010) will amount to €600 million and will be devoted to ‘improving and optimising the refinery’.

Meanwhile, the Eni management announced that, over the next few years, technological innovation and automation would result in the redundancy of 280 workers at the petrochemicals refinery, in the form of mobility procedures or, in case of a deal with the trade unions, voluntary resignations. Besides the restructuring of the refinery, chemicals production would also be downsized, resulting in the closure of the Etilene 2 polymer plant at the Gela complex by the end of 2007. This closure would entail a further 120 redundancies, reducing to around 100 the number of staff working in the company’s chemicals section, all of whom are employed at the complex’s polyethylene plant.

Reactions

Three of the main trade unions representing the workers temporarily broke off talks with the company management and threatened a general strike in the petrochemicals sectors if the company did not withdraw its personnel restructuring plan. The trade unions involved were the Italian Chemicals, Energy and Manufacturing Federation (Federazione Italiana Lavoratori Chimici Energia Manifatture, Filcem-Cgil), the Energy, Chemicals and Allied Industries Federation (Federazione Energia Moda, Chimica e Affini, Femca-Cisl) and the Italian Chemicals, Energy and Manufacturing Workers’ Union (Unione Italiana Lavoratori Chimica Energia Manifatturiero, Uilcem-Uil). Nevertheless, the union representatives then decided to resume talks, asking Eni to present its four-year industrial plan in detail and to justify each of its provisions, which concerned ‘33% of the petrochemicals workforce’. According to the provincial Secretary of Filcem-Cgil, Alessandro Piva, ‘a project is required which, while investing in production activities and reduction of their environmental impact, does not penalise the employment levels achieved’.

Eni announced that the industrial plan was aimed at ‘modernising the Gela refinery and at giving it a level of competitiveness comparable with the best refineries in Europe. Closure of the “Etilene 2” plant is a consequence of its obsolescence and small size’. Finally, the company declared its willingness to relocate some of the redundant workers at the polymer plant ‘to other Eni activities on the site’ by the end of 2007.

Commentary

The case of Eni’s complex at Gela highlights the difficulties faced by trade unions in accepting and negotiating industrial restructuring for the purpose of productive modernisation. While the trade unions recognise that such restructuring brings improvements in terms of the environmental impact on the territory, at the same time they are aware of how it prejudices employment levels, particularly in economically disadvantaged areas. Although, on the one hand, the Gela petrochemicals plant is the largest industrial organisation in the area (despite the loss of more than 2,000 jobs in the past 20 years), on the other hand, it causes considerable damage to the environment and the health of local residents. According to a recent survey, the numbers of malformed babies and deaths caused by cancer in Gela are substantially above the national average.

Livio Muratore, Ires Lombardia