The Stellantis group announced this Wednesday, May 28, the appointment of the group’s new CEO. Italian, who entered Fiat in 1999, the current director for North and South America Antonio Filosa was one of the favorite profiles within the group to succeed Carlos Tavarès, sidelined at the end of 2024.
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It took six months to find a successor to Carlos Tavarès. Italian Antonio Filosa, current director for the American continent for the Stellantis group, was unanimously elected by the board of directors of the automotive group. This appointment, which comes to conclude in the research months of the new boss of Stellantis, will take effect on June 23.
Originally from Naples, who entered Fiat in 1999 and 51 years old, Antonio Filosa was director of American brands (Chrysler, Dodge, RAM) and responsible for the group’s quality management. The Tavarès years, marked by record profits, the development of international stellantis, but also scandals linked to the quality of vehicles, are gone? Several projects are waiting for the new CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the firm at the 14 brands.
Antonio Filosa will have a lot to do to reinstate confidence, especially in the United States, where sales collapsed in 2024. “He made part of his career in the USA, so it was a sought-after profile”, reacts Jean-Paul Guy, central union delegate for the CFTC and employees of the Vesoul site in Haute-Saône. “The group is angry with […] the United States”, a country where the vehicles produced are “high added value”, explains Jean-Paul Guy.
Faced with new customs duties established by the US administration, the group recently announced layoffs in its factories in North America. “Our CEO will have a lot to do in the United States concerning sanctions,” says the union representative CFTC.
In the United States, parts are sent to Canada and Mexico to the United States and that we are going to sell on American soil. It’s not tenable with Trump’s taxes.
Jean-Paul Guy, central union delegate CFTC in Stellantis Vesoul
“There is a lot of work to be done to keep the balance,” says Jean Paul Guy. Ditto for the Italian government, with which the group was also “angry” and with whom “you have to manage to discuss.”
The union, which “impatiently awaited the appointment of a new CEO at the head of the mastodon”, is this time pending lighting on “the entire Stellantis site”, “both on the side of the energy transition” and “on the effective and human part.”
The group’s current roadmap, which provided for the end of the thermal in 2030, is, according to Jean-Paul Guy “not feasible in view of the sales of electric vehicles. We think that the lines will move.” “The plumber who will buy his utility level 45,000 euros is not thinkable. In any case will Europe save the world.”
For Jean-Paul Guy, the threat to European factories is today mainly political, another stone in the garden of the new CEO: “If we continue on this path, the automobile in Europe will disappear, like textiles 50 years ago.”
At the Sochaux factory in Doubs, where “the order book is full”, notes Jérôme Boussard, CGT central union representative, employees are mainly waiting, beyond the personality of Antonio Filosa, better working conditions. “The name is a little indifferent. What is he going to do in terms of jobs?” Asked the assistant secretary for the CGT in Sochaux.
For the union, demand has been the same for years: “Maintaining jobs, hiring of all temporary workers”, and a “strong increase in wages”, or 400 euros net more monthly, according to the expectations of the employees consulted internally. “We will notice on this. This is what makes us live, we are not shareholders.” “Tavarès had a good check,” recalls Jérôme Boussard.
In Sochaux, the brand’s historic fief in Lion makes 5100 permanent employees work and 1100 temporary workers. “If you remove them, it doesn’t turn,” says Jérôme Boussard. “It is not normal for a temporary worker to be 18 months old, and that it will be turned. An temporary worker forms and other and takes its place,” deplores the union representative.
Make way for hiring and the end of overtime. You can’t come 6 days a week to the factory.
Jérôme Boussard, CGT central union representative in Stellantis Sochaux
In November 2024, a night’s half-team came to strengthen production on the Sochaux site, which manufactured 3008 and 5008. Insufficient for the CGT, which requires a complete team and the end of the Saturdays worked, which became a habit, according to Jérôme Boussard. In July-August, 6 to 7 Saturdays should be worked, assures the union representative, without wage compensation.
For Jean-Paul Guy, expectations are also on the human side of business management. “What we don’t want is the performance psychopath. It has become untenable for teams.” The formula had become famous, during the Tavarès era. Since his departure, according to the CFTC union representative, “people can finally let go. No longer be subject to fear management.” “We want to be able to work and do our work, invest and become ambassadors of our Stellantis markers, which was complicated, not assuming non-quality,” summarizes Jean-Paul Guy.
In a letter addressed to employees this Wednesday morning, Antonio Filosa says “measure with great humility” his new responsibilities. He claims to “strengthen links and confidence”, and “meet and listen to the greatest number” of employees, “in person”. Whoever signs his mail with a simple “Antonio” plays the card of the break with their predecessor.