CHAPTER 29
THE DECENTRALISATION OF
FIAT’S PRODUCTION – 1974 :
A WORKERS’
INQUIRY
[Translated from Lotta
Continua Bulletin]
Half of FIAT’s production
takes place outside FIAT itself. It’s a known fact that there is a myriad of
smaller factories extending around Mirafiori, the biggest single concentration
of workers in the world, and around the other big factories of the Turin area.
These smaller factories supply FIAT on a day-to-day basis with the majority of
the 6,000 parts needed for the construction of a car or truck. It’s also a
known fact that FIAT’s power cannot be defined simply within the limits of the
structure and administration of FIAT itself as a company. Leaving aside its
position as a multinational structure of finance capital (through the
industrial finance house, IFI), FIAT’s power has to be seen in relation to
these other situations of production.
All this is known, but until
now, for a variety of reasons, we have not paid sufficient attention to it.
PROPOSALS FOR WORK AROUND THE
CYCLE OF THE MOTOR CAR
For our part, it has been
objectively difficult for us to intervene in, and even study, a situation like
this, which is so wide-ranging and fragmented that it requires an commitment that we have not so far been able to make.
Also, for the official labour movement and the trade unions, similar problems
have existed (although obviously in lesser measure) – but they too have tended
to limit their political intervention to the situation of the larger factories,
avoiding political work in these other situations.
The result is that, although
we have a general awareness that the problem exists, that’s about as far as it
goes. We do not know how many people are employed within FIAT’s global cycle of
production. We have not been able to map out the cycle and flows of production.
We have only a fragmented and casual understanding of the conditions and the
struggles of the working class employed in this sector. And up till now very
little has been done to study the relations between FIAT and their suppliers.
We can no longer postpone this
work. The debate on the future of the motor industry is in full swing. In Italy
in particular this is linked to a reconversion of this sector towards a
hypothetical new mode of capitalist accumulation. We have the repercussions ot the so-called “energy crisis”
and the restructuring of production. On the one hand, this means the real
issues of full utilisation of plant, a blockage on
new starters, and the block on any plans for new development in the
For this reason, we shall try
to make some proposals for work around the FIAT cycle of production, as well as
a number of possible starting points for an analysis.
Photo: ………………
CONCENTRATION OF PRODUCTION,
AND THE BUILDING OF THE FIAT WORKING CLASS
The main characteristic of the
development of FIAT’s system of production, as it has developed over decades,
has been the constant tendency towards a large concentration of the final
production process of the motor car within enormous factories. This has been
accompanied by a converse process of dispersion, particularly in
The technical reasons for
building such a structure of production are fairly easy to understand. The
creations of gigantic industrial concentrations like Mirafiori and Rivalta
allows an organisation of work to be developed that eliminates a lot of
transportation expenses. It also allows an intensification of direct
exploitation: it was accompanied by the introduction, during the 1950s, of full
assembly line working. The political reasons for the choice are also clear: the
choice to concentrate industry in the North, on the backs of emigrating workers
from the South, creates mobility of the working class, and a real reduction in
costs. As regards the working class outside FIAT, it also creates a clear
division within Turin itself, between a working class that has a secure job,
and is kept peaceful by combined policies of paternalism and repression, and a
working class outside FIAT that is discriminated against in terms of wages, and
is the first to be hit by ups and downs in the market for cars. In
THE GROWTH OF THE FIAT WORKING
CLASS OUTSIDE FIAT
During the 1950s, the period
in which the Union and the Communist Party had been driven out of the factory,
FIAT proceeded to model the labour market of the
AN EQUALISATION OF CONDITIONS,
TOWARDS A UNIFICATION WITHIN THE CLASS
The 1960s saw a total reversal
of this process. Employment at FIAT increased by 50%,
compared with the 6.9% of the preceding ten years. This was related to
FIAT’s move into foreign markets. At the same time, a section of FIAT's
supplier industries completed the technological leap that transformed them into
medium-sized concerns, with an organisation of work similar to FIAT. This was
accompanied by a drastic reduction of employment in the textile, food and
mineral-extraction industries.
At the end of this process,
which coincided with the explosion of struggle at Mirafiori in 1969, the
strength of the working class is considerably greater than it was during the
1950s, because the gulf between FIAT workers and workers in the rest of society
had been dramatically reduced. A whole stratum of low-paid and precarious
workers found higher wages and increased job security (faced with a shortage of
manpower – a relative shortage – the employers of the medium-sized companies
were forced to raise wages so as to prevent an outflow of their workers seeking
higher wages within FIAT). This makes it easy to understand how the struggles
and the demands of workers at Mirafiori could – and did – spread to that whole
series of factories that have within them the same antagonistic contradictions
as FIAT: a working class that was “necessary” and could not be eliminated; an
organisation of work that tended to reproduce the same egalitarian demands that
were arising at FIAT (e.g. equal wage rises for all); and the easy extension of
forms of resistance to work (e.g. absenteeism).
But at the same time that a
stratum of medium-sized companies moves upwards in scale, this does not at all
mean that the rest of the firms supplying the motor industry disappear – in
other words, the stratum of small and very small firms, some employing only a
few people. In this stratum we find the part of the working class that has been
thrown out of the scientific organisation of exploitation. The older workers
who can no longer take the pace of FIAT’s work speeds; women, who are too prone
to absenteeism and whose productivity is too low; and unemployed youth, who
have qualifications, but who are considered undesirable because many of them
have played a leading role in the struggle in the schools. The relationship between these two strata is constant, and in practice
the second stratum functions as a sort of “lung” for the first: it can be
controlled and regulated according to the needs of production. – [Note: The
creation of these “lungs” is fundamental to the present reorganisation of
production – the creation of areas of production that are flexible, and can be
used to ride out periods of crisis. The introduction of more stockpiles inside
the individual factory is just one example.] In fact, we can talk of a
continuous movement downstream from FIAT to the medium-sized suppliers, and a
veritable flood downstream from them to the very small supplier companies,
which includes the whole situation of out-work done in the home – a flood that
grows in proportion to the growing strength of the working class in the big
industrial complexes.
DECENTRALISATION AND DISPERSAL
We must stress that this
structure is not a leftover from the past. It is not an immature form of
capitalism, but the other, indispensable face of “progressive” capital. It is a
serious simplification to divide these two forms of capitalism in
Furthermore, from the
employment statistics for Turin and its outlying areas we can see another
important aspect of the FIAT cycle of production. Workers in the engineering
industries are being driven out into the outskirts of Turin; the surrounding
towns are being expanded as centres of employment; and in those zones we are
seeing an expansion of medium (and small) industries.
OTHER CHANGES
There are also other changes
taking place in the Italian motor industry, which began with the crisis of that
sector as from 1970. This is not a crisis of demand, as we can see from the
continuing growth in the demand for motor cars at a worldwide level and the
widening of that market, which makes it possible to avoid, or at least reduce
to a minimum, the crises of the domestic market. Instead it is a crisis of
restructuring – an attempt to rebuild a high level of profits in the sector,
which can only be achieved by launching a frontal attack on the strength of the
workers that brought about a reduction of profits. The so-called “energy
crisis” gives FIAT the opportunity to greatly accelerate this process.
Photo: …………
We already know some of the
moves they are making: the blockage of new starters in the big factories;
increased repression against workers’ forms of resistance to work; and the
automation of certain jobs in the factories. That’s one side of the coin. The
other side is a parallel development towards a spread of contractor firms,
sending work out to contractors, increasing “black” working, and increasing the
level of “precarious” work and outwork. We can see this in the present big
increase in the numbers of smaller workshops, and in the constant process of
sending work out of the big factories into the smaller concerns. But the
difference with the 1950s is that capitalism in the motor industry is no longer
capable of recreating social peace within the large factories through a policy
of high wages (because of its poor economic state, and because there is no
guarantee that this would stop the struggle inside the larger factories). The
only alternative is to decentralise both production and the working class, by
fragmenting the working class out into the small and very small suppliers,
where workers’ strength is far weaker. This amounts to a dispersal of workers’
strength. But at the same time, the generalised attack of inflation means that
we are bound to see an extension of struggle in these areas too. So the
dispersal can be seen as a laboured response to workers’ struggles until such
time as a more general political solution can be found in the national context.
AN ANALYSIS OF FIAT'S SUPPLIER
FIRMS
What follows is a first
assessment of the relation between FIAT and their supplier industries. This is
a sketchy view, and needs more in-depth study.
[a] Overseas
suppliers
FIAT obtains a fair proportion
of component parts from abroad. The suppliers number about thirty, and they
provide FIAT with mechanical parts with a very high technological content
(particularly for the larger models). FIAT prefers to acquire these abroad
rather than manufacture them themselves, because it would require expensive
machinery and skilled personnel. (For example, the German ZF company and the
American Warner Gears for automatic gears; the German Seeger for particular
rings; the French Nomel for special washers; the German Lobro and Swiss
Birchfields for couplings; the Belgian Champion for spark plugs; and about
thirty other firms.) In this respect we should remember that FIAT has the
lowest technological level of all the big world motor manufacturers. For
instance, some relevant figures: the production of engines, particularly of
cylinder blocks, is 98% automated at Volvo and General Motors, but only 37% at
FIAT. The same goes for gear boxes etc. (This shows that FIAT’s high
productivity is not due to technological innovations, but comes from more
intensive exploitation of the workforce.)
The majority of these firms
are German, French and Swiss. They are generally large companies, independent
of FIAT. However, foreign supplies are also imported from the FIAT factories in
This second stratum of
suppliers is completely different from the first. They are simply the
international extension of FIAT’s cycle of production, designed to reduce the
vulnerability of this integrated cycle to struggles in
[b] FIAT and FIAT subsidiaries
Among Italian suppliers, a large section are FIAT companies or subsidiaries. This
means Ages, Autobianchi, OM, the Carmagnola
Foundries, Mirafiori, Borgaretto, Ferriere, the factories at Marina di Pisa,
Avigliana, the component factories in Florence, Bari, Vado Ligure, Sulmone,
plus the metals, lubrication and railways sections.
Another section is made up of
companies in which FIAT and IFI hold shares: Magneti Marelli
(89%), IVI (100%), Stars (100%), Borletti (33%), Babotti and Weber (100%), INVES, Lancia
(100% partnership), Moto Fides (100%) and others such as INPES, from the IFI
group. Then there is a relationship with the big tyre
factories, both in
[C] Medium-sized Italian suppliers
There is a third stratum of
Italian suppliers which have advanced considerably in their technology and
organisation of work, as well as in the breadth of their operations. These
function virtually as part of FIAT, since their production depends on FIAT.
They include lighting manufacturers like Carello and
Altissimo, wheel producers like Cromodora, and a host
of other factories supplying especially rubber, plastics, accessories and spare
parts. However, some of these companies are becoming less dependent on FIAT,
because they have been coming under the control of foreign capital
(particularly of ITT). Carello has been sold to American
capital, and Face-Standard, Gallino, and more than 20
other factories in the
Still as regards the big
suppliers, as well as the process that has strengthened many of them and taken
them out of FIAT’s direct control, there has also been a process of
rationalisation and centralisation by FIAT. This has entailed the formation of
a consortium of factories, known as the “Rossi Group”, which merges about 11
factories engaged in producing mechanical parts and accessories. The group will
be . based in the south-west
suburbs of
FIAT has also announced an
expansion and restructuring of the spare parts sector. This is expected to
yield big profits, in part because people are now keeping their cars for longer
(therefore will need more spares), and partly because spare parts is a
notorious source of super-profits, particularly when a company has a monopoly
of parts, and when it has a network of dealers and repairers such as FIAT is at
present setting up not only in Italy, but in all the markets where they are
currently selling.
[D] The small suppliers
This brings us to the small
and very small suppliers, who represent numerically the majority of
manufacturers within the auto cycle of production. As we have seen, this
structure was bom within FIAT itself, and continues to exist as a safety valve
for FIAT. It is a flexible sector, and maintains low production costs.
These are generally factories
producing parts in steel, plastic and rubber, for the engines and body-work;
bolts and screws, and other small components. They are often small foundries,
or stamping shops with small presses. This sector is absolutely dependent on
FIAT, for a number of reasons:
– Their raw materials are generally provided
by FIAT.
– Their machinery is often old machinery from
FIAT, made obsolete by the introduction of new machinery.
– The planning and design of the pieces to be
made is done in FIAT’s own technical offices.
– Their credit is provided wholly through
FIAT’s finance house.
– The ownership of these places is generally
in the hands of “FIAT men”, i.e. foremen who are nearing pension age, or skilled
workers, who receive financial assistance from FIAT to set up little workshops.
– Production plans and schedules are dependent
on what FIAT needs at the given time. At present production schedules are being
revised every fortnight!
Clearly, FIAT uses this
supplier system as a way of offloading costs. But it does more than this. It
also removes from the factory the jobs that are the most dangerous and
hazardous to health (stamping, foundries, chrome painting, paint-spraying,
etc). In some cases the work requires skilled workers, and FIAT prefers to have
this done in situations where wages are much lower than at FIAT itself, where
safety measures are ignored, and where the strength of the working class is
much reduced, either by the smallness of the workshops, or by the “special
relationship” that the small boss sets up with his workers (who, as we have
seen, are often the workers who have, precisely, been thrown out of the bigger
factories).
The resistance to work that we
see in the big and medium factories is far harder to sustain in the smaller
factory. Overtime is the order of the day, speed-up often goes unchallenged,
and you find piecework bonuses and moonlighting are commonplace. When there is
a big demand for cars at FIAT, the effects are felt right down through this
structure, with orders being passed down through these companies to the smaller
workshops with only a few workers and a few cheap machines, as well as outwork
done at home.
At present it’s impossible to
assess the number of workers in this sector, because it is not stable: it
varies according to the needs of FIAT and the market. Also, in many cases, the
workers in these places are doing two jobs – sometimes even coming to work
after eight hours working for FIAT itself. There is a whole labour racket built
on the bars and cafes of working-class areas of
Another example of this is the
so-called “new way of making cars”. FIAT has been talking of introducing
island-production into parts of the factories it owns. If it ever happens, it
will only concern the final stages of assembly of the vehicle. As such, it will
still require the supply of component parts. Of course, the manufacture of
these parts (monotonous, fragmented, alienating work) will not take place in
these “islands”, nor even in the factory itself. It will
be contracted out, and will probably be done in the small workshops we have
described. Even if these islands are not introduced, we know for a fact that
certain jobs have already been moved out of Mirafiori, and the recent block on
new starters testifies to this. This is Agnelli’s plan – to build the same
number of cars (or possibly more) at Mirafiori, with fewer workers, and force
the rest of the workers to leave the factory and go into lower-paid jobs. A
plan not notable for its “humanity”!
OTHER MOVES BY FIAT
Photo: …………
We are also seeing an
administrative restructuring of FIAT itself, as well as a reorganisation of
suppliers. Agnelli has said that FIAT is to be divided into 3 “technological
divisions”. These will have autonomous managements, administration and
production. A plant like Mirafiori, for example, will be divided into 3 parts:
Body Plant, Mechanical Plant and Presses, each of which will have a director who
will be responsible for the whole cycle of production in his sector, including
purchasing and final output. This will give greater power to middle management,
and greater possibilities of control within the plant. FIAT will also become
even less accountable, and will be even more able to manipulate and create
“crises”. It will also tighten up costing, which in itself will put a lot of
pressure on supplier companies. FIAT has already shown that it is capable of
exercising its monopoly position to keep the suppliers in line. In times of
crisis, they threaten to withdraw credit facilities from the suppliers who
depend on FIAT financing. They can use this mechanism in order to prevent
suppliers putting up their prices.
As regards the suppliers, the
formation of the Federmeccanica, in which FIAT
suppliers are a large presence, has meant that FIAT
has been able to tie this sector to its own interests, and uses it as a
reactionary force so as to impose FIAT’s policies within the employing class as
a whole.
The supplier companies are
particularly vulnerable to workers’ struggles, as we saw during the strikes of
the rubber and plastics workers in recent months, over their national contract:
a struggle that played havoc with the production schedules of the big factories,
first with the staggered strikes in the tyre
factories, then with the blocking of the gates at Pirelli and Michelin, but
most particularly with the actions and hard struggles at Stars Villastellone, at Ages, and at other smaller factories.
We have tried to draw up a
list of these FIAT suppliers, but in many cases we know neither their names nor
where they are. We are hoping that comrades will do the work of finding out
what and where these factories are, what has been
their history of struggles, and what their structure is. In addition, we need
to know what they produce; the nature and composition of their working class;
the history of their struggles and what they are doing at present; the
structure of wages and gradings; whether the union is present, and if so, what
its role is; and all other elements that could be useful for a wider analysis.
This is work that we must do in the coming months. It is also work that will
only be fruitful insofar as it is done with workers.
[Lotta Continua – Bulletin of the National Commission on Workers'
Struggles.
February
1974]
_______________________________________
Translated by Ed Emery
Extracted from: THE
BOOK OF
FIAT:
Insurrection, insubordination, occupation and revolutionary politics at the
FIAT motor company – 1907-1982
Published: Red Notes / May Day Rooms
First published in 2020