Sider Alloys is back to resorting to redundancy payments . The Swiss company that in 2018 purchased the Portovesme plant from Alcoa, with promises and specific commitments, is struggling to get going again.
And, starting from Monday 24 March, the workers of the primary aluminium plant, still waiting for the restart, will also be placed on redundancy .
A decision that «the Government and the Region cannot accept», and that «we and the workers certainly will not accept», states Giuseppe Masala, secretary of the FSM Cisl of Sulcis Iglesiente .
"The company - explains the union representative - has sent a message in which it is known that, given the temporary impossibility of resuming normal business activities in the short term, it must resort to CIG from Monday 24th and until further notice".
"Unsustainable" behavior , attacks Masala, "in light of the commitments made with the 2018 program agreement signed by Sider Alloys with the Ministry, the Region and Invitalia.
«Nothing has been done on the revamping front and for the relaunch of the former Alcoa» , insists the trade unionist, denouncing the worsening of the workers' situation, «with salaries that are skipping and now the redundancy fund».
At present, the company "is not able to guarantee salaries and employment, nor to start real development programs and projects". For this reason, the union is asking for the Government's intervention : "It must guarantee, for the share owned by Invitalia, concrete relaunch interventions to be implemented in a short and certain timeframe, even bypassing the current majority shareholding of Sider Alloys. The MiMit must immediately recall the company, stop wasting time and resources".
The mayors of Sulcis also express "frustration and disappointment" and launch an appeal to regional and national politics.
"This latest failure worsens an already critical situation, which brings families, communities and the future of an entire generation to their knees ." The mayors ask the Region and the Government for "concrete policies to support workers, relaunch industry and offer a growth perspective to this land that deserves a vision of the future and not a continuous pursuit of the past."
