• Whirlpool, a year of battles. Unions 'a dispute that cannot be missed'
  • Whirlpool case: Fiom, Fim and Uilm declare 16 hours of unitary strike throughout Italy

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July 31, 2020 The news comes during the meeting at the Mise in video conference between the company, unions, ministries of Labor, of the South and for Economic Development: on October 31 the Naples plant will be closed. To say it, the CEO of Whirlpool for Italy, Luigi La Morgia.

"We must discuss - he said - how to absorb most of the redundancies". The company confirms the target of 250 million euros of investments by 2021 and "the commitment to continue investing in Italy" even if the Covid-19 has slowed down production leading to a "delay of more than 12 months compared to objectives of the industrial plan ".

The losses of Whirlpool Italia 
On the Naples site, we have invested 100 million euros in the last 10 years but unfortunately there are no longer any conditions of economic sustainability, "added La Morgia, according to union sources present at the table. For the manager, the company "is at least three years in a row that has lost millions of euros both in terms of profit and in terms of cash. Covid has also created different market dynamics and today our position in Italy, and also outside, it is essential to be able to allow us to react quickly to what is happening ". This is a "significant decline" caused by Covid in the second quarter of the year which the Group does not expect to be able to fully recover by the end of the year.

Minister Provenzano: all to be redone
"Whirlpool's presentation of the industrial plan is not true and is to be redone, a confirmation of the plan cannot be submitted by canceling a Southern Italian factory". Thus replies Minister for the South Giuseppe Provenzano to the data presented by the American Group to explain the production crisis and the need to leave the Naples site. "The plan is supported by the government and we are ready to take action but needs to be re-presented".

Patuanelli: deficient industrial plan
Minister for Economic Development Stefano Patuanelli along the same lines: "This industrial plan has excessive shortcomings and limitations with respect to the Covid effect and above all cancels an important part of the industrial plan". The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Labor, Nunzia Catalfo. Patuanelli would have confirmed that almost 50 million euros have been made available by the Government and the Campania Region to continue production in Naples.

Now we are working for a series A alternative.
The government's goal is to keep the Whirlpool plant in Naples open, so Minister Patuanelli explains, "option A" remains, but "then together with Invitalia we made a path to not find ourselves without an alternative, we cannot afford to be without an alternative ". "We are working with groups of absolute excellence, not with companies we say improvised - added the minister - as unfortunately sometimes happened in the past. When we talk about Adler group and Htl we talk about excellence, they are dimensionally very solid and recognized, present for a long time time".

"We are doing
everything possible" "More than what the government is doing together with the Campania region is objectively very difficult - continues Patuanelli - but to be serious we must also build an alternative. As known in the aerospace sector there is an international leader who is involved by the State with which there is an interlocution and which can be part of the solution ". "We have made available and coordinated a number of important tools, including pre Covid. That remains option A and we are talking about tens of millions of euros. Minister Provenzano has implemented an additional tax advantage measure, which has a important impact on Whirlpool and it adds to the other tools. Then together with Invitalia - concluded Patuanelli - we took a path to not find ourselves without an alternative, we cannot afford to be without an alternative ".

Adler-Htl hypothesis for 282 employees
The hypotheses for the study by Invitalia in the automotive and aviation sector can absorb up to 272/282 workers at the Whirlpool plant in Naples for now. In the aviation sector in particular, centralizing the Adler Group's production in the area would entail, as stated in the tables presented at the table, an investment of € 15.3 million and 52 jobs. To these would be added the project of the same group for hydrogen batteries in the automotive sector with 18.6 million investments and 20 employees, the production expansion of Htl (50/60 employees) and the location of another operator with 150 employees .

The Prefect of Naples: we are worried
"I am here to testify that all the institutions are concerned about the closure of the Naples site. Every effort must be made to keep production on the Neapolitan site. There is a risk of a social crisis with unpredictable results". This was said by the prefect of Naples, Marco Valentini, attending the table at the Mise, underlining that "the Whirlpool dispute has become a national symbol dispute with a great importance also from a social point of view". 

The unions: block layoffs
We ask the Government to confirm the blocking of layoffs for Whirlpool as well, to avoid that from October 31 the workers in Naples will lose their jobs. It would be incomprehensible that while the Government is looking for solutions at the table at the Mise for Naples, it will not provide for the extension of the layoffs block. "Barbara Tibaldi, Fiom-CGIL national secretary and head of the household appliance sector, asks it." We reiterate - continues Tibaldi - that the dispute must to return to the attention of the Premier Count because it is evident, from today's speeches by the Ministers at the table, that there are different opinions within the Government. This is the venue up to a discussion that not only concerns the maintenance of the Naples plant, but the maintenance of all the sites of the Whirlpool group, which can only pass by respecting the plan ".