CHAPTER 44
THE
SACKINGS AT FIAT – SEPTEMBER 1980
21st September 1980
Dear John,
It’s a cheery sort of morning. Iraq and Iran are
stepping up their war efforts; the new military junta in Turkey is
consolidating itself; a rogue Titan missile with a destructive power 7,000
times that of the Hiroshima bomb has just blown itself up in the US; and the
Sunday papers show West Ham fans at yesterday’s match giving Nazi salutes. And
it is raining.
But not all is gloom. This morning I had a call from
THE
SACKINGS AT FIAT
FIAT has announced its
intention to make 22,000 workers and 2,000 staff redundant by the end of
September. They held a press conference, to comment on the disastrous state of
the auto industry. During the coming week we shall see whether the matter will
be resolved by compromise (inter-company mobility of labour and layoffs for
months on end) or by confrontation. The first 8,000 redundancy notices are all
ready to send out. The FIAT-Mirafiori shop stewards
committee decides to occupy their factory. It is likely that the sackings will
hit FIAT’s southern Italian plants hardest (
The announcement of the sackings was preceded by
Press conferences and statements to the Press. FIAT’s
sales in
At the time of writing, the possible outcomes include the
following: (1) the Company could negotiate with the FLM Union for a number of
workers to go into early retirement, or to be transferred to other firms; (2)
there is talk in Turin of a plan whereby, under the local council’s Housing
Plan, 10-20,000 workers will be required in the construction industry; this
would provide work for redundant FIAT workers; (3) the Government may intervene
with a new law on Labour Mobility.
The Company is not prepared to say which sectors of
workers are going to be hit – but it is clear that they already have a good
idea, since lists of names have been drawn up at Head Office. So, for the
moment, the picture is unclear. [Lotta
Continua, Saturday 6 September 1980]
“IF THEY ANNOUNCE REDUNDANCIES WE SHALL OCCUPY THE
FACTORY”
A comrade
in
The main feeling is that if FIAT goes ahead with these
redundancies, then the FIAT workers will occupy the factories. This feeling is
not confined to the more trade-unionised sections of the factories – but it is
also not clear what will happen afterwards. It was also not clear who would
be sacked. One Communist Party militant, a veteran of the 1969 struggles, has
his own: "The women.... ever since FIAT took on the women, the heart; has
gone out of the situation How’s that for feminism! If the
Company’s going sack anyone, let them start with the women. And the young ones,
the news starters... .they've done us no good; they
make a lot of noise.... they say all the political parties are the same....and
then they do nothing in the factory." [LC, Saturday 6 September]
MIRAFIORI WILL BE OCCUPIED, BUT…
Remember October 1979. FIAT had sacked 61 workers
because their “behaviour” was considered harmful to the Company and its image.
There was a tremendous scandal. There was talk of terrorism – and in fact it
turned out that three of the sacked workers had been members of armed
organisations; there was fear and suspicion; there were physical attacks and
killings. FIAT said that with the sacking of those 61 (whose only fault – or
merit – was to have been vanguard militants in the strikes of recent years, or to have been young and troublesome on the assembly
lines) peace and productivity would return to the factories. But they were
clearly being treated as scapegoats, as subsequent events have shown.
FIAT's disasters cannot be
blamed on the existence of a few long-haired workers in the factories, or on
the young women hired in 1979- They must be traced to a parasitic management, a
weak management with no grip of the situation, a management that has grown up
with the easy profits of a company that had grown big simply because of its
protected monopoly situation; and lower levels of management who, in Turin,
behave like the rulers of a banana republic, doing little deals with smaller
factories, exploiting their powers of buying and ordering, and fiddling the
order-books. And now we see the results – a massive slump. Nobody buys FIAT
cars any more, because other cars cost less, consume less petrol and last longer.
And at this point the FIAT management put their hands on their hearts and blame
the workers: the workers must be sacked.
24,000 sackings. The
largest sackings seen for a long time in
Of course, workers’ struggles could change all this.
At Mirafiori yesterday the atmosphere was tense. The
young workers got out of the plant as soon as they could, leaving behind the
older militants on the gates, the older shop stewards who have carried forward
the struggles of the past 10 years, and who, more often than not, have been on
a winning wicket. But these older workers are worried too. Of course, Mirafiori will be occupied. But what comes after that...?
There is uncertainty. There will have to be negotiations, with Union leaders
Lama, Carniii and Benvenuto
meeting Government ministers in
There is a stirring in
the air. The stirring is called
[LC, Saturday 6 September]
A TRADE
UNION LEADER SPEAKS
Giorgio Benvenuto,
secretary of the UIL social-democratic union confederation, gave an interview
to Lotta Continua:
LC: If you are refusing to negotiate
on the sackings, or the labour mobility, what does that leave you, other than
breaking off negotiations completely?
GB: We can negotiate on the control of
new starters, on the question of layoffs, on early retirement. But one thing
must be me clear: for us the crucial question as regards FIAT's
possibility of emerging from this crisis is the question of whether it will be
done with or without the
"FIAT is in crisis
because over the years it has thought to reduce the strength of the trade
unions rather than improving its technology. Then there is this enormous centralisation
of decision-making in
The
[LC, Tuesday 9 September]
THE
NEGOTIATIONS
The negotiations on the FIAT sackings are taking
place behind closed doors, in complete secrecy – the opposite of the Lenin
shipyard in
Thus far, the only news was that FIAT had confirmed
their need to reduce their stockpile of 432,000 unsold cars and their need to
reduce their workforce by 24,000 (the biggest mass redundancies in
The FLM proposals, for early retirement and a ban on
new starters, were rejected by the Company. Also, it now appears that the bulk
of the redundancies will be in
Pio Galli,
of the FLM Union, made a counter-proposal: rotating layoffs over a 3-month
period for the 70,000 workers in the automobile sector. This solution, he
claims, would reduce stocks, and would take the drama out of the situation. However,
FIAT seems unlikely to accept this solution.
FIAT SENDS
OUT 14,303 REDUNDANCY NOTICES. THE COMPANY THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET
[MISSING TWO PAGES]
There were also shop stewards representing other
FIAT-related plants in
Some of the biggest surprises, however, were still to
come; as for example when an FLM Union official called on the workers to
"do as the Polish workers did". And shortly after, in an atmosphere
of tense expectation, the workers marched off out of the factory and set off
across Corso Traiano
towards the centre of
[LC, Thursday 12
September].
THE BODY
PLANT AT FIAT-MIRAFIORI
A Body Plant worker from FIAT-Mirafiori
explains the day’s events:
Turin: 11 September 1980: We turned on the radio
(yes, the radio, because these days we have a radio station broadcasting in the
plant because we need to keep ourselves informed minute by minute what’s going
on). We wanted to know if Agnelli was going to sack
us, or if he was going to wait to hear the Unions' suggestions....No such
luck....They want to sack a whole shift... .We've got
no choice. We've got to fight it. We've got to strike. We've got to be one jump
ahead of management. Comrades, when we go back to our sections, we're going to
have to strike straight away. It’s the only possible answer.
That was the position in the Mirafiori
Body Plant yesterday afternoon. That's the reason why we stopped work. We're
playing for big stakes now. The lives and the livelihoods of thousands of
families are at stake. It was not hard to imagine things coming to this pass.
The news that the thin red thread had broken arrived in the factory at about
5.00pm.
Mirafiori was in a state of expectation....
One 127 line had already been on strike since 4.00pm, over manning levels (as
had the Metal Finishers some days previously). FIAT refused to put a single
extra man on the job: "Either you accept the situation, or I’ll send you
home" was the message from the plant manager. "If that's the case,
and if you're leaving us two men short, then we're going on strike right now.
In fact, we're already on strike. You can go to Annibaldi
and tell him that we’re on strike and that he doesn’t frighten us.”
The lines were running very
slowly. And then the word arrives that management negotiations have broken
down. We decided to hold meetings in the canteens. Not much was said, but the
words were clear enough. People were eating… it was hard to let the message
sink in… hard to digest your food…
The discussions carry on,
on the way back to the line. Everyone is talking, the women, the young workers,
the older workers, everyone.
"Comrades," says one, "It's the right
time. If we're all united we need not be frightened. They want to sack us.
We've got to fight it – and if necessary we should occupy Mirafiori".
"Yes," says Lucia, "We must occupy".
Three lines further on,
the march. An enormous march, with several thousand workers.
The slogans are taking shape: "
An enormous march, with about 8,000 workers, I would
say, with red flags and a portrait of Karl Marx. We see some foremen:
"Stupid foremen – Down the toilets with them".
"Let's get outside and picket the gates....what
are we going to do in here?....People must see that
we're ready to do anything....Let's occupy".
We go out into the open air.
We see people out in front of the factory gates.
They've realised what's going on. It’s a fine march. There’s a bit of
everything. When we get to Corso Agnelli
we line up. The megaphones and the flags go up to the front of the march. We
meet up with the workers from Metal -Finishing and from the Paint Shop. We
start chanting more loudly, everybody*chanting. We stop the traffic outside the
plant.
We invite the workers who are on the trams going home
to come out and join us. They come down, and the tram goes back to the
terminus. Everyone cheers and whistles.
We cross Corso Traiano again, then Corso Unione Sovietica. We’re shouting
slogans. “We don’t want to be sacked,” explains a forty-year old worker to a
lady in a car.
Going towards Corso Tazzoli. There's a mass meeting.
A Union official is speaking. Nobody pays much attention. "We'll occupy,
but we must prepare well for tomorrow's strike. We must discuss and involve everybody, we must become the reference point for the whole
working class of
Nobody’s sure what to do. Some say yes, some say no.
That occupation seems like a cursed word. Nobody’s prepared to say it out loud, nobody’s taking it to the point of action. It's impossible
to explain....there's a definite shortage of people who could act decisively...
it would be different if the sacked 61 were still with us... It's not easy to
understand what the Communist Party comrades are up to...they want to occupy,
and then they don’t want to occupy. Let’s hope that the strike happens
tomorrow, because it's pretty chaotic here. We'll be screwed otherwise.
[LC,
Thursday 12 September]
ITALIAN WORKERS BACK THE FIAT WORKERS
The total all-out strike at FIAT is now in its 25th day.
And the struggle, far from falling off, is gaining momentum. Once again, this
morning, thousands of laid off workers came to the factory, and entered,
through the gates, in defiance of FIAT’s ultimatum.
Having made this symbolic gesture, they then stay around for the various
meetings and discussions: the factory gates are still crowded with groups of
workers and supporters manning the picket lines.
Every day now the
Solidarity is also taking
a more “material” form. The Verbano Cooperative has
sent 1,700 litres of milk for the strikers and their families. The Nichelino Cultivators’ Cooperative has promised free fruit
and vegetables for the People’s Canteen which has been set up at FIAT-Lingotto. There have also been moves towards “twinning” of
THE FIGURES
FOR THE REDUNDANCIES
Press Shop - 1,974
Engine Plant - 4,410
White Collar - 2,281
Teksid - 1,090
Subsidiaries - 1,000
Assembly - 14,000
Most of those to be sacked are from within the
THE DAY’S
EVENTS AT FIAT-MIRAFIORI
Yesterday
At 8.00am the thousands of Mirafiori
workers and Lingotto workers set off in a march. The
demonstration was led by the women workers from Lingotto’s
Assembly plant, carrying an enormous banner. All the way down the 6 miles into
town they kept up a rhythmic chant – "Potere
operaio" and "Se la FIAT licienzerà, occupiamo la città" ("Workers’ power” and "If FIAT sacks
us, we’ll take over the city”). In front of them were 20 or so cars, with the
red flags of the FLM engineering union hanging out of their windows, and with
horns blaring. "Danzig, Stettin, we’ll do the same in
For the first time since the struggle started you
could see numbers of young workers – the new starters of the last 2 years – involved
in the struggle. And the pavements were crowded with people watching the
marchers going by. The Mirafiori Body Plant went by
with a poster of Pope Woytila raised high – an ironic
comment on the workers of the Polish shipyards. The march finally reached
Piazza Castello, and ended with a meeting below the
offices of the Piedmont regional Council.
[LC, Friday 12
September]
SWITCH ON
YOUR RADIO. YOU MIGHT FIND THAT
FIAT HAS
BEEN OCCUPIED
Yesterday afternoon negotiations between FIAT and the
FLM engineering union broke down. The attempt to barter layoffs and
redundancies outside of any control by the workers, and with the exclusion of
workers and shop stewards from the negotiations, has failed. The FLM is now
proposing handing things over to the Government and the national trade union
confederations. FIAT’s immediate response is that
tomorrow they will be setting the wheels in motion for the mass sacking of
thousands of workers. A day of tension and uncertainty for
the people of
At FIAT-Rivalta and at Lancia there are big strikes, and demonstrations by the
workers. Mirafiori nervously awaits the latest
developments. ’’We’re worried, but we’re at the point of exploding”. In the
evening FIAT’s main union organisations meet together,
after the shop stewards have spent the day arguing against the negotiations
being carried out in Rome. They want the negotiations brought North, to
’’The crisis is real, but we do not accept, and will
never accept, that the workers....should be made to pay for this crisis... The
negotiations must not be allowed to take place with the workers in the dark.
The workers, and public opinion, must be able to follow the various moments of
the negotiations and the positions of the various parties as they develop. We
have a lesson, in the method that was followed in
Plant-level Union officials have decided on an
occupation of the Mirafiori and Rivalta
plants. Everyone is trying to keep the working class out of any possible
decisions on its own future. But, in the final event, the only hope will be if
the working class can push itself into the front line of the battle.
[LC, Friday 13
September]
FIAT KEEPS
UP THE HARD LINE, THE MANAGEMENT
REFUSE TO
ACCEPT LABOUR MINISTER FOSCHI’S ARBITRATION
FIAT’s main reason for
rejecting Labour Minister Foschi’s proposals is that
they do not accept the principle of external labour mobility here and now. In
other, words, FIAT still wants the absolute right to get rid of one tenth of
its workforce, on its own terms, to shunt them over to jobs in other sectors
(where it is doubtful if these jobs even exist, given the levels of unemployment),
and to run down an important part of its Turin operations. In
other words, a massive attack on that vanguard of the Italian class struggle
which, in the past 10 years, has been represented by the FIAT workers.
This is not a case of ’’get rid of the key militants”. This was done last year,
with the sacking of ’’the 61” (and it was the way in which the Union and the
PCI allowed these sackings to go unchallenged that allowed FIAT a clear run to
the present challenge to Turin’s organised labour). No, this is a ’’mass
execution”.
It is clear that FIAT has not budged an inch from
their original ultimatum. There has been a meeting at Government level, between
FIAT management, Union leaders, and Prime Minister Cossiga
– at which Minister of the Interior Rognoni was also
present, as if to underline the ’’threat to law and order" that could
ensue with these redundancies. It is to be expected that the Government would
prefer to avoid a situation where factory occupations are breaking out all over
the place.
In a sense, it is as well for the Unions that FIAT
rejected Foschi’s proposals; Union acceptance of the
provisions for total layoffs and 15,000 redundancies (via early retirement and
natural wastage) would not have been well received in the
[LC, Thursday 25 September]
THE
COMMUNIST PARTY ARE INTENT ON BRINGING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT. THEY BRING ALL
THEIR EFFORTS TO BEAR
’’These last few weeks the Communist Party seems
affected by an almost maniacal syndrome: its political line can be summed up in
3 words: ’’Cossiga Must Go!” A Communist MP summed it
up in Parliament: ’Every morning, Communist Party
militants, instead of saying their prayers, say: ’’What.... Cossiga1s
still here! ....he must go before tomorrow”. And since the end justifies the
means, the PCI is in favour of anyone who can make the Government fall....and
at this moment, that means the situation at FIAT.”
[LC, Thursday 25
September]
THE GENERAL
STRIKE IN SUPPORT
OF THE FIAT WORKERS. 25 SEPTEMBER
1980
The general strike called by the engineering unions
in
There were many delegations of workers from other
plants and other parts of
The Mirafiori march started
at 9.00am in front of Gate 5. At first the numbers were not enormous, but the
march grew to tremendous proportions as it went down the 6 kilometres of Corso Unione Sovietica.
It was led by dozens of cars, with the red flags of the FLM hanging out of the
windows, and with horns blaring. In the lead were the banners of the various
Works Committees at Mirafiori – the Body Plant, Press
Shop, Engine Plant. Men and women workers arm in arm in
the hazy sunshine, with a tremendous din of whistles, beating drums and slogans
– against the sackings, for an 8-hour general strike, for jobs, and for unity
between North and South.
There were many posters – including a big portrait of
Che Guevara carried by the workers of 76 Shop. Behind
them came a splendid banner of the Trade Union Women's Coordination, a brightly
coloured message to Agnelli that women were not
prepared to be sacked from FIAT and driven back into the home. (The previous
day the women had held a packed meeting at FIAT-Rivalta,
concerning the position of the women factory workers. This is particularly
important in these days, in the event that FIAT tries to make the women bear
the brunt of the redundancies).
Then there were the workers from FIAT’s
numerous sub-contractor plants, almost all women, who will be badly hit if the
FIAT sackings are allowed to go ahead.
Having once arrived at Piazza San Carlo, the marchers
packed the square. But the Mirafiori delegation, for
instance, did not stay together as a tight presence – they mingled with other
crowds of workers and red flags in the square. In fact we can say that the only
tight presence in the square was the organised presence of the Communist Party
militants, who occupied the space in front of the speakers1
platform. Carrying that day’s copy of L’Unità
like a poster, they cheered the CP mayor of
In the meantime, the rest of the crowded main square
seemed to have no particular interest in taking part in the proceedings. In the
event, the speeches from the platform ended at 11.30am – a lot earlier than
should have been expected for such a day of national mobilisation. Already
people were drifting off out of the square – and the tail end of the marches
was still arriving on the scene.
In short, the demonstration was a tremendous
expression of workers’ power, and presence. But it was a dumb, somehow passive
expression, in a sense. We walked those 6 kilometres, but somehow there was a
lack of imagination, of creativity, of a sense of where we go from here. A sense of separation of the “official” level (of negotiators from
[LC, Friday 26 September]
THE DAY OF ACTION (Cont.)
Meanwhile, the Day of Action in the South of Italy
was very badly represented. Only 15,000 workers attended the demonstration
called in Naples, compared with 50,000 for the 1978-79 engineering contract
negotiations, and the 500,000 of December 12th 1975- A number of factories hit
by redundancies were there – Italsider, Sofer, FIAT-Cassino, Indesit-Sud. Pio Galli spoke for the FLM, and made a clear rejection of
workers’ mobility and the blackmail of redundancies.
The biggest “absentees” from this struggle were the
workers of the Alfa- Sud plant in
COMMUNIST PARTY SECRETARY BERLINGUER GOES TO
THE FOLLOWING DAY THE
FIAT
MANAGEMENT POSTPONES THE REDUNDANCIES.
Just at the moment when the space for mediation
appeared non-existent, and when the redundancy letters for 14y thousand FIAT
workers had already been sent out, FIAT today made a surprise move and threw
its weight behind the political forces which have brought about (by one vote)
the fall of the Cossiga Government.
A brief communiqué issued to journalists today let it
be known that FIAT management had suspended, for a period of 5 months, the
machinery for the biggest collective sacking in the Company’s history.
Instead they will go ahead with the measures already
discussed and in large part agreed with the Unions: (a) special layoffs for
24,000 workers, some of whom will be on full-time layoff, and some on a system
of rotating layoffs; (b) declaration of a state of crisis at FIAT; (c) a block
on new starters – natural wastage; (d) early retirement. FIAT’s
communiqué makes no mention of the question of external mobility – which was
the big sticking point in the negotiations. However it does
accuse the FLM engineering
The Company gave the resignation of the Government as
their reason for postponing the sackings – since, apart from the heightening of
Italy’s economic and social crisis, there would be dangers in allowing further
aggravation of the atmosphere of tension in the country. FIAT claims to have
acted ’’responsibly” in postponing the sackings – and hopes that the Unions
will do likewise.
Berlinguer, speaking in
But Berlinguer has shown
himself to be a better strategist than many of his adversaries. Some people are
even speaking of a direct agreement having been reached between FIAT and the
Communist Party, inasmuch as both have, in a certain sense, emerged from this
battle as victors (at least, for the moment).
Contrary to appearances, FIAT has won a lot more than
the Union was previously prepared to concede: full-time layoffs; thousands of
workers removed out of the factory (with no major dramas); and the question of
labour mobility still hanging in mid-air, with the expectation of a new
government law being brought in. The "Japanese-style" transformation
of the factory can go ahead in peace....in theory at least.
The PCI, on the other hand, wins on all fronts: it
wins against the Christian Democrat party; and it gathers around it a degree of
workers’ consensus, at the expense of the trade unions. As they say, Berlinguer, in one day in
So, is the game played out? Far
from it. But for the moment normal service is being resumed. The negotiations
will almost certainly return to
THE BALANCE
OF THE GOVERNMENT CRISIS
The government, the second under Prime Minister Cossiga, was composed of Christian Democrats (DC: 15
ministers), the Socialist Party (PSI: 9 ministers), and the Republican Party
(PRI: 3 ministers). It was formed on the eve of the local council elections of
June 1980, and fell at its first important fence – the package of economic
measures to deal with the crisis. It had lasted 135 days. The Socialist Party
supported this Government (a government which claimed to be able to restore the
country to "governability") – and took a lot of stick from the
Communist Party for their class betrayal. The Communist Party, in this period,
was "in opposition" – i.e. no longer giving tacit support to the
Government. If there is a loser in the situation, it is the Socialist Party (PSl) under their leader Bettino Craxi
(who is trying to establish a social- democratic party
on the model of
AGNELLI
NOMINATED FOR THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR MEDICINE
The first reaction to FIAT’s
14,500 sackings among the workers was that the whole thing was a bluff.
No....the firm would probably settle for 3–4,000 redundancies in the end,
taking it out on the habitual absentees. So, the immediate effect has been a
dramatic drop in the number of workers going sick. You see it in any doctor’s
surgery in
THE PROBLEM
OF ABSENTEEISM
We’ve already noted how the Alfa-Sud
workers were barely present in Thursday’s Day of Action in support of the FIAT
workers. Alfa has just signed a special deal with Nissan, offering the Japanese
firm joint production rights in
Lotta Continua newspaper interviewed Enzo Mattina, head of the FLM
engineering union, at a Press Conference shortly before the Government fell. He
is a man who can be counted on to open his mouth and put his foot in it. He
stated his opinion frankly:
"I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
There are layabouts employed at Alfa-Sud, a minority,
perhaps 20%, who treat the factory like going to a football match: they never
work, and they ruin work for everyone else – i.e. the majority. In these cases
I am in agreement with Massaccesi [head of Alfa-Sud]: they must be identified, and sacked. And if there are
shop stewards who are abusing their powers to pursue their own personal
interests, they must be expelled from the Union and stripped of the protection
that the
His opinion was echoed this morning by Foschi, the Minister of Labour, in a communiqué which
stated:
"...the phenomenon of absenteeism, such as
exists at Alfa-Sud, must be rooted out by legislative
means if necessary, so that we can rid the factories of these pockets of
non-productivity".
And immediately the results are seen at Alfa. At the Alfa-Pomigliano plant – after "record" absenteeism of
41% on Wednesday, and a high level yesterday (reducing the "normal"
production from 400 to 257 cars per day) – 25 workers were sent letters,
sacking them for absenteeism. And the
An odd situation, when the leader of the main
engineering
[LC, Sunday 28 September]
[Reprinted from Ed Emery,
Reports to the Serenissima, September 1980]
_______________________________________
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