Fiat deal being used to gut collective bargaining rights throughout Italy

[Hannah Bell]

After imposing massive concessions contracts at automaker Fiat’s plants in Pomigliano D’Arco and Mirafiori, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is emerging as the leader of a campaign to force cuts and attacks on collective bargaining throughout the Italian economy....

By requiring workers to individually sign contracts, they lay the basis for eliminating collective negotiation of contracts and banning strikes. They also limit free assembly and the right to freely choose union affiliation. The deals include a series of other attacks on wages, benefits and workplace rights: extending the workday from 8 to 10 hours, tripling the amount of compulsory overtime, weekend work, reducing break time, and deferring traditionally guaranteed rights to the discretion of the company.

Votes on similar concessions contracts are coming up at Fiat plants in Melfi, Cassino, and Bertone. These deals set the stage for an attack on metal and mechanical workers throughout the industrial sector whose national contracts, overseen by the General Confederation of Italian Labor (CGIL), expire December 31.

Businessmen, academics, and politicians plan to extend Marchionne’s cuts throughout the Italian economy in an attempt to boost corporate profits and international competitiveness. In a recent comment Reuters complained, “In the last 10 years, production costs have risen 25 percent more than in Germany. There is no doubt Italy is in dire need of reform.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/fiat-a09.shtml

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Teachers have been signing individual contracts for years

[MrTriumph]

2. So you like the auto bailout, huh? Guess who the US gov't turned Chrysler over to?