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Unions called on the group’s 40,000 employees in Italy and workers at its suppliers to take part in a 24-hour national strike to demand job guarantees and the production of new models.
Some 20,000 gathered in Rome, with around 300 more demonstrating in Turin.
Unions described the walkout as “a historic strike like there has not been for more than 40 years”.
Italy’s former national flagship carmaker Fiat merged in 2014 with US giant Chrysler, then with France’s Peugeot-Citroen (PSA) in 2021, to create the Stellantis group, with more than a dozen brands, including Alfa Romeo, Dodge and Maserati.
After three years of growth, market conditions are now tough, including low demand for costly electric vehicles.
Production in Italy fell by 31.7 percent to 387,600 vehicles in the first nine months of 2024, according to union FIM-CISL, which said it was “the worst figure since 1956”.
It expects the company to produce “fewer than 500,000 vehicles” this year, compared to over 751,000 in 2023.
Giuseppe Carbonara, 52, a protester from Bari in southern Italy who has worked in the automobile sector for three decades, said he now only worked two or three days a week.
“There is no industrial policy in Italy. We are asking the government to open a round table with Stellantis,” he told AFP.
Production stoppages and temporary layoffs have created tensions between the company and Rome.
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In July 2023 Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares committed to increasing production in Italy to one million units by 2030 following mounting political pressure.
That goal now seems unattainable.
Sales of electric vehicles in Europe have been stagnating since the end of 2023, mainly due to a lack of affordable models.
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Stellantis also blames a delay in the Italian government’s launch of incentives for buying electric cars.
Meanwhile, Brussels has banned sales of new combustion-engine cars by 2035 as part of efforts to reduce emissions.
Two days before the strike, Stellantis said several of its Italian factories would stop production again in November to regulate production, citing “the drop in orders in the electric vehicle market in Europe”.
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Production of the electric version of the iconic Fiat 500 at the Mirafiori plant, near Turin, was suspended in mid-September until November 1st.
Stellantis has also announced stoppages at the Pomigliano d’Arco, Termoli and Pratola Serra factories on several days in November.
Mirafiori, the stage for Fiat’s golden age, “is slowly dying”, Maurizio Oreggia, national automotive coordinator for the Fiom-Cgil union, told AFP.
Workers have been forced into temporary layoffs, a scheme which allows companies in crisis to stand down staffย for a limited period on a reduced pay.
“Time’s up,” said Rocco Palombella, head of the UILM union.
“The automobile industry is dying, we risk an unprecedented social tragedy,” he said.