Production suspended until March 27 to respond to the Covid emergency also in the factories of FCA, Mirafiori and Maserati included. The decisions to close the factories at least temporarily in order to restore the ideal conditions for the people who have to work inside are multiplying – day after day. And after the cases of recent days (Denso, but also Marelli, Leonardo and Thales Alenia Space, just to name a few), other plants are preparing for a break to strengthen their defenses against the infection by Coronavirus.
The provision adopted by the automotive group provides for “Temporary suspension, which will be in force until March 27, 2020” and “is part of the implementation of a wide range of actions in response to the COVID-19 emergency and allows the Group to respond effectively to the interruption of market demand by guaranteeing the optimization of the supply “, says an official note released by the company. “In particular – he continues – the suspension of production is implemented in such a way as to allow the Group to restart production promptly when market conditions allow it”.
The updated production plan therefore provides for the closure of the Mirafiori, Grugliasco body shops, as well as the Melfi, Pomigliano, Cassino and Modena plants. With them also Kragujevac (in Serbia) and Tychy (in Poland).
“FCA has decided on its own initiative to make changes to the production processes in various plants, including increasing the distance between employees in the work stations. FCA has increased the cleaning and sanitation operations in all the structures, in addition to having made further improvements to protect the safety of
employees. Strict controls and security measures have been applied in the canteens and
access by external visitors to all Group sites. In offices, the company has accelerated the spread of remote working (“Smart Working”), an option now widely available to employees worldwide. “
“The Group will use these production suspensions to implement revisions of the production and quality control processes for the benefit of its customers and overall productivity. The Group is working with its suppliers and partners to ensure that, despite the production suspension, the plants can reach levels of total production previously planned when the demand from the market resumes “.
“After the tensions that have occurred in these days in the FCA factories, the strikes, the full-blown cases of virus-positive employees and the appeal that workers have made on the opportunity to suspend production, the decision to stop the factories in assembly came today from FCA – commented Edi Lazzi general secretary of Fiom Cgil in Turin and Ugo Bolognesi responsible for Mirafiori for Fiom Cgil -. We think this decision had to be taken already last week as we advocated, also because, as evident from what is happening, a slowdown in auto sales will be inevitable. “
“Now it will be necessary to take into consideration also the stoppage of the other FCA plants / sectors and of those that work for the automotive sector – conclude the representatives of Fiom -. The suspension of production must be used to take all the necessary precautions for safety of metalworking factories, but also to prevent the virus from continuing its spread in these days due to the gatherings in public transport to go to work and in the workplaces themselves. The health of workers must take precedence over any other what, we can not lose sight of the concept that the references of the choices you make must put the workers at the center, then everything else comes. Fiom CGIL will continue in these days to stay by the side of the workers who will continue the production to ensure compliance with the safety standards enshrined in the protocol signed in recent days “.
“It is good that FCA has decided to close the plants as a precaution to apply the Protocol signed with the Government – agrees Luigi Paone, Uilm Torino general secretary -. It will be our duty to monitor with the utmost attention that all the measures envisaged by the Protocol in the FCA business realities that will remain active. Worker health comes before any reasoning on production “.