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“The employee representatives are deeply dissatisfied with FIAT’s understanding of the
social dialogue at national and European level”. This is the unanimous statement made
by the participants at the trade union coordination meeting organized by the European
Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF).
The aim of today’s meeting, attended by 35 trade union officers and workers’
representatives from 12 countries, was to examine what impact FIAT’s recent decision to
create two distinct companies would have on the employees and European workers’
representation.
The participants expressed their dissatisfaction at the social dialogue carried out so far
by FIAT. They want a social dialogue based on the standards set by European legislation
and they will make sure that this will apply to the two companies which will result from
the separation of FIAT activities.
The participants agreed that the information about the separation of its activities
provided by FIAT to the European Works Council (EWC) had only been a formal exercise
until now. It dramatically lacked concrete and detailed input about the group’s industrial
strategy, its future investments, the allocation of production and the impact of the
separation on employment and sites.
The trade unions present at the meeting therefore call on FIAT to provide detailed
information to the EWC so that it can assess the impact of the strategy developed by the
company. They discussed joint strategies in the event of FIAT not meeting this rightful
demand.
The participants clearly stated that their rejection of management’s strategy to play
workers and sites off against one other. They demanded that FIAT guarantees existing
employment in Europe.
The EMF will contact European policy-makers in the European Commission and
Parliament, on behalf of its affiliated unions present in FIAT, to make them aware of the
possible effects of FIAT’s strategy on employment and sites. The EMF will address the
demands of the trade unions in a direct letter to FIAT management.
The trade unions took the decision to pursue and intensify their cooperation as a trade
union coordination group defending the workers’ interests at European level. There will
be a further trade union coordination meeting after the effective creation of the two new
groups to decide on possible further steps - especially in the event of the new groups not
respecting the workers’ right to a proper social dialogue at European level.
_________
PRESS 28/2010
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28 2010
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