Sider Alloys, slow relaunch: mobilization against the CIG from Monday

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The relaunch plan for the primary aluminum plant is still progressing slowly and Sider Alloys workers in Portovesme are facing severance packages. From Monday, a number of employees of the metallurgical company (and its subsidiary), who work in the metallurgical complex acquired by Alcoa eight years ago, will receive regular social safety net benefits for 13 weeks.

An announced danger

A fact that does not come out of the blue, as the trade union organizations have been asking for government intervention for some time. “The situation is now untenable and we will start mobilization from Monday – announces Roberto Forresu, regional secretary of Fiom. The relaunch project that would have put the factories back into operation is still not completed and we cannot proceed any further.” The foundry is currently in operation, but according to the metalworker’s secretary, the most important part is missing. “It concerns the electrolytic cells, the reconstruction must be completed and therefore the start-up of the electrolytic cells, where the primary cells are produced, which has always been the real strength of this factory in terms of production and quality.”

Immediately the meeting at Mimit

The unions have also submitted a request for an emergency meeting at Mimit, partly in light of the fact that “the State participates in the company with a 20% share through Invitalia”. The requests that the unions will repeat to the government representatives concern precisely the state of the art of the project which, with a public-private investment of more than 140 million euros, aimed at relaunching the smelter capable of, until its closure in 2011. 2012, to produce 150,000 tons of primary aluminum for billets and billets. “We were told that part of the renewal is going slowly because the containers with the necessary parts to continue with the interventions have not yet arrived – Forresu adds – at this point it is necessary that the discussion takes place at a higher level .” .

Other issues that need to be loosened up

The issue of further investments linked to Sace guarantees also needs to be resolved. “We will also ask the government for clarification on these funds – he adds – and at what stage the programs related to the use of these funds are.” What even more worried the unions and workers, who saw the restart of the metallurgical plants as an opportunity for what was defined as “the new season of aluminum made in Italy”, was precisely the opening of the regular CIG.

The mobilization

Hence the decision to relaunch the mobilization from next week. “It is clear that we will not remain inert in the face of this situation. On Monday we will decide what to do – concludes the Secretary of the Metal Workers – we certainly cannot continue to wait without a solution and without calling on all actors involved to take responsibility. We expect answers from the government about the future of this factory, with or without this company, and concrete actions.”

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