Former Ilva, production halted in Taranto: national strike on Monday

From Friday, October 9, all production activities in the hot area of the former Ilva plant in Taranto, Italy’s largest steelmaking complex, have been suspended. Acciaierie d’Italia, the company that manages the plants, has also announced the “general temporary shutdown” of the Genoa and Novi Ligure plants, expected by November 15.

Fim, Fiom and Uilm have called a 24-hour strike across all the group’s plants for Monday, October 12, a national mobilization covering the entire production chain, not only Taranto. The unions denounce the absence of a concrete prospect for resuming activity, limiting for now the discussion with the government to the management of social safety nets alone: “The only aspect currently under discussion with the Government is that of social safety nets” — national secretariats of Fim, Fiom and Uilm.

The matter is part of a still-open legal dispute: the Court of Cassation is set to rule on October 20 on appeals concerning the plant. The outcome of that decision could affect the timing and manner of a possible resumption of production, now blocked on several fronts simultaneously.

The former Ilva case has for years represented one of the most complex issues in Italian industrial policy: a plant strategic for national steel production, at the center of environmental, legal and employment disputes that have overlapped over time without a definitive solution. The suspension of the hot area in Taranto, the production heart of the plant, signals a phase of stalemate affecting the group’s entire production chain, from Apulia to Liguria to Piedmont.

It should be noted that the news currently comes from a single source (ANSA); no independent confirmation is available on the details of the discussion between the government and the unions cited by the labor organizations.

Monday’s strike thus comes at a time of production suspension at three of the group’s plants, with the Cassation Court’s ruling on October 20 as the next relevant deadline for the development of the dispute.