Gkn, 422 workers fired by email. Night at the factory, assembly to the bitter end

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July 10, 2021

About fifty workers spent "a quiet night" inside the Gkn plant in Campi Bisenzio (Florence), an English-owned factory of automotive components (drive shafts and transmissions). Employees, with the RSU and the unions, yesterday opened a permanent assembly inside the factory that produces drive shafts for cars, after the news of the dismissal of all 422 employees. "About fifty workers remained here - explains Andrea Brunetti of Fiom Cgil in Florence -, we spent a quiet night and woke up with more awareness than yesterday. The permanent assembly will go on indefinitely, in the next few hours we will decide what to do to starting from Monday when the plant was supposed to reopen after the weekend ".

Numerous, from the announcement of the layoffs, the demonstrations of closeness expressed to the workers of Gkn. "We feel the support of the citizens and the institutions. Last night we held a city assembly and the relay race of the metropolitan area unions began. Yesterday the driver of a bus stopped to greet us and support us, these are good things to morale ".

Orlando: unacceptable modality

"I heard the mayor of Campi Bisenzio and my offices contacted the trade unions, the Mise is moving to verify the conditions in which the episode took place, but these are modalities that cannot be accepted and on which we must find all the elements to avoid them ".

This was stated by the Minister of Labor, Andrea Orlando, commenting on the dismissal of 422 employees via email.

"I have never hidden my concerns in front of the release of the layoffs, but this seems to me a question that has specific characteristics. We are facing a particular case".

Relay mayors at the factory

It is the mayor of Scandicci (Florence), Sandro Fallani, who opens today's relay of the first metropolitan citizens at the Campi Bisenzio plant. "Here - said Mayor Fallani - I see mature workers, shocked who have undergone an unexpected and unacceptable decision in forms and ways. We have an example of aggressive capitalism that sends 422 people home with an email after a year of pandemic. a situation that does not pertain only to this establishment and this territory, but touches a more general equilibrium ". To protest the dismissal, the metropolitan mayors of the Florentine area have announced an indefinite relay race. "We mayors - continues Fallani - have decided to give a constant institutional presence, I'm here this morning,today there will be other colleagues because institutional pressure is almost as fundamental as trade union action. Certainly the Tuscany Region and the State can have a say in this matter, also because, the employees explained to me, the plant has taken public contributions over the years. It is not acceptable for an e-mail to arrive in Tuscany in 2021 that communicates, without sitting down at a discussion table, that there is no more work ".without sitting down at a discussion table, that there is no more work ".without sitting down at a discussion table, that there is no more work ".

The company estimates plant turnover -48% in 2025

The turnover forecasts of the Campi Bisenzio plant for 2025 stand at around 71 million euros, an amount that is around 48% lower than the turnover levels of 2019, before the pandemic. The Gkn writes this in the letter with which yesterday it announced the layoffs. Due to the contraction in volumes in the automotive sector, explains the company, "the prospect is that of a non-sustainability of the Campi Bisenzio plant" which led to the "irreversible and irreversible decision to close the plant and stop all activities at its". The company, continues the letter, "is not in a position to resort to the use of social safety nets". The plant employs 422 people on an indefinite basis: four executives, 16 middle managers,67 employees and 335 workers.

Unions: Active Dragons monitoring table Palazzo Chigi

"The closure announced yesterday through an email from the GKN of Campi Bisenzio and the dismissal of the 415 workers is a truly unacceptable fact. It is not the first time that a multinational has shown absolute insensitivity towards work, the fate of hundreds of families and overall of our country ". This was underlined today by the Secretary General of the CISL, Luigi Sbarra, and the Secretary General of the Fim CISL, Roberto Benaglia. "The Government must intervene by immediately activating the monitoring table on corporate crises envisaged by the agreement of 29 June at Palazzo Chigi, calling companies to comply with all the procedures to guarantee employment, the dignity of work and the person. they are not goods.the behavior of this multinational is intolerable, which proves to think only of profit, not respecting agreements and apparently with the prospect of delocalizing production. The union will not allow this umpteenth barbarism. The government has a duty to intervene in a strong and decisive manner. Employers' associations must take an active part in governing the processes of change in industry with trade union agreements and the necessary social sensitivity ".Employers' associations must take an active part in governing the processes of change in industry with trade union agreements and the necessary social sensitivity ".Employers' associations must take an active part in governing the processes of change in industry with trade union agreements and the necessary social sensitivity ".

Card. Betori: finding a solution to the 422 layoffs

"The announcement of the layoffs at Gkn creates great concern for the workers, their families, the entire community of Campi Bisenzio, and the Florentine territory. Thought and prayer of the bishop and the diocese go to those who today are suddenly afraid of losing their job. In addition to expressing closeness, I hope that with the commitment of all the interested parties and the institutions we can open a dialogue and find a solution that at the center are people, the dignity of work, the common good ".

Thus the archbishop of Florence, cardinal Giuseppe Betori.

Usb: with induced 500 at home, it is foreign funds speculation

"In addition to the layoffs of all Gkn employees, 335 workers, 67 clerks, 16 middle managers and four managers, there are the workers of Easy Group srl, Host food srl, companies involved in industrial activity and services, this is how we arrive to about 500 people deprived of their wages and jobs ". This is evidenced by the basic acronym Usb Firenze Lavoro Privato Industria regarding the notice of the closure of the Campi Bisenzio plant "arrived by email on a day of blocking of activities due to lack of components. A communication method in perfect harmony with the content of the letter, sent to the RSU and the trade unions, which cuts off the use of any social safety net, because according to the company there is noit is another way than throwing direct and indirect employees into the street "." The one signed by Landini, Sbarra and Bombardieri is in fact a mere acknowledgment of the freedom to dismiss given to the bosses, of which they are already making wide and unscrupulous use, other than a recommendation to use social safety nets, is a shameful lie that has liquefied in front of the gates of Gianetti Ruote and Gkn. It is no coincidence - underlines Usb - if both are linked to foreign funds: Gianetti Ruote to the German fund Quantum Capita lPartners, based in the US, while Gkn is from the British fund Melrose, speculative mechanisms without specific industrial ambitions, ready to throw thousands of workers on the street in order to enhance their value on the stock exchange.We are at the beginning of a dramatic season in which the employers, Italian and foreign financial speculators, with the full support of the Government, intend to rewrite worse conditions of employment, wages, working hours, health and safety and trade union rights, using the tool of restructuring and layoffs ".