In order to be able to invest ?1 billion (US $1.31 billion) in a joint venture with Chrysler, Fiat needed to secure agreements with all unions representing its factory workers. However, a more hard-line Italian union, FIOM, is refusing to sign the deal Fiat is proposing for the Mirafiori plant and announced that it will go on strike later this month. In retaliation, the automaker threatened to withdraw the cash ?should it not be satisfied?.
According to FIOM, CEO Sergio Marchionne managed to convince the FIM-CISL, UILM, UGL and FISMIC unions and a vote will be held on January 13-14 among Fiat employees represented by those unions to ratify the deals.
In the meantime, FIOM is staging an eight-hour strike for January 28 at the Mirafiori and other Fiat plants plus Italian institutions, labeling the deal as ?an awful agreement?.
?This agreement by Fiat is outside the national metalworkers agreement as if it was a house built in a desert?, a FIOM spokesman in Italy told Just Auto. ?All the other unions have signed, but FIOM has refused. We have called a strike but not only in Fiat - all of Italy on 28 January for eight hours. It is an awful agreement?, he added.
FIOM is objecting to alleged changes that Fiat wants to implement, regarding future strike rights, break times and sickness benefits.
By Csaba Daradics
Source: Just Auto [Sub. Req.]
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