Workers and ministers in Portovesme, Urso: «Strategic zinc line, continuity is needed». Calderone: «No discounts»

Workers, unions, tricolor sashes and politicians of the Region.

On the day of the collective protest against Glencore, the Swiss multinational that anticipated the closure of the zinc line at Portovesme srl , the crowd in the factory's assembly hall almost seems like an occupation.

The stakes are very high, as is the anger: "The agreements of December 7 have been totally disregarded" , the solemn ones made at the table of Mimit, the Ministry for Enterprise and Made in Italy, says Emanuele Cani, the regional councilor for Industry. One of the first to arrive.
It is no coincidence that Adolfo Urso, the head of Mimit , is in Portovesme, together with the Minister of Labor, Marina Calderone. There is Alessandra Todde, ready to bang her fists on the table.

"In this situation there is no Government and there is no Region - said Todde - We are all together and we have the papers that say very precise things. Today we talk about how to make these papers sing ".

"We are here for a first necessary response to the decision that the company has taken unilaterally , without communicating to us as it should have done before, to shut down the zinc line activity earlier than we had agreed together ", Minister Urso emphasized. "We have already communicated to the company that for us it is an unacceptable stop in terms of merit and method, because we believe that the zinc line is strategic for Italy. We are in the field to guarantee production continuity, we are here ".

"We have the firm belief - added the Minister of Labor Calderone - that what we are experiencing today must bring us back to a working horizon. We do not intend to make discounts to anyone, the bill that we will present will be very high. You do not play with workers, with families, with the future of a territory that has already paid a lot for what were in the past wrong entrepreneurial initiatives".

Meanwhile, Glencore has announced that already "since September 5th" the multinational "has announced the transition to an exclusively Waelz activity", that is, with the exploitation of only steel mill fumes, from which zinc oxide is obtained, and "has begun to gradually prepare the maintenance of the zinc line", it is written in a note. "This decision was based mainly on two well-known critical factors: a very difficult operating environment for European smelters, which have been drastically affected by high energy prices, and increased Asian competition". Glencore then underlined that the decision to close the zinc line "was taken after more than two years of collaboration with various sectors of the Government to identify structural solutions to high energy costs".