Unions plan strike action at delocalisation of Michelin plants

In November 2006, the French Michelin company, world leader in the production of tyres, announced plans to downsize human resources and the production of tyres in its plants located in Italy. The Italian sectoral trade unions are concerned about these developments and have decided to mobilise workers and organise strikes while waiting to learn more in relation to the group’s restructuring plan.

The French Michelin group, world leader in the production of tyres, currently employs more than 130,000 workers and owns 74 production plants worldwide. In 2005, the group produced 180 million tyres and 22 million maps, tour guides and atlases, with a total turnover value of €15,590 billion.

Some 10 years ago, Michelin employed more than 12,000 workers in Italy. Today, fewer than 6,000 employees remain. The company’s four Italian plants are located in the northwest Piedmont region, at Torino Stura, Alessandria, Fossano and Cuneo. In addition, a legal office is situated in Turin and a commercial office in Pero, Milan. Nevertheless, Michelin’s Italian labour force continues to decline each year, with the Cuneo plant currently scheduled for relocation to France. In the past, 90% of fixed-term employment contracts were renewed, whereas today this proportion has decreased to 30%. Moreover, the company has announced that, starting from 2010, retired workers at the Italian plants will not be replaced.

2005 agreements

In 2005, the three sectoral trade union organisations represented in the company had reached a series of agreements with the company management, including the renewal of performance-related pay. The three trade unions involved are 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), affiliated respectively to the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil), the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Trade Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, Cisl) and the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil).

The agreements aimed not only at stimulating investment and recovering the productivity and efficiency of Michelin’s Italian plants but also at consolidating the presence of the French group in Italy. However, the Secretary General of Femca Cuneo, Renato Fantini, has pointed out that these agreements, reached after difficult negotiation, have failed to avoid the closure of the Cuneo plant. In fact, the relocation of this plant, which produces aircraft tyres, will infringe the commitments made in 2005.

Trade union reaction

The management announcements took the trade unions by surprise. In a joint press release, circulated after a meeting with the company management held in October 2006, the trade unions announced that ‘Italy has been excluded from Michelin’s forthcoming strategic investment and production plans, which will be entirely concentrated in other plants mainly located in western Europe: Spain, Germany, France and Scotland’.

The company’s management, following repeated requests by the trade unions, has scheduled a meeting for February 2007 and has promised to present a reorganisation plan for the Italian plants by then. However, according to the trade unions, Michelin ‘is unable to guarantee additional investment or an increase in the production of volumes. On these grounds, the trade unions have decided to call a three-hour national strike (one hour and a half in November 2006 and another hour and a half in January 2007), which will involve all the workers employed by Michelin in Italy’.

According to the Filcem National Secretary, Giancarlo Straini, ‘the decisions taken by the company management will not have a serious impact immediately on jobs but are nevertheless alarming because, by 2010, they will seriously jeopardise the existing production of the Italian plants’.

The trade unions are concerned about Michelin’s elusiveness in discussing long-term company programmes and about the possible disengagement of the French group in Italy. As explained by Stefania Pomante, of the Filcem manufacturing department, the ‘loss of an important strategic asset is very often accompanied by the lack of new investment’. The trade unions are asking the parent company for adequate investment, new products and production levels to guarantee the future of Michelin in Italy.

According to the unions, a large number of workers participated in the first strike, held on 29 November 2006. The trade unions underlined that ‘these kinds of initiatives will continue in order to safeguard employment and guarantee the development of Michelin’s plants in Italy’.

Marta Santi, Cesos