Metalworking industry, 70 thousand jobs at risk

If the metalworking sector overall shows a robust resilience to the current economic crisis, some sectors, the most energy-intensive ones, essentially cars but also household appliances and steel, show an evident situation of suffering in the first 6 months of 2022: they have in fact passed to 70,867 workers at risk, involved in crisis situations, between cig and the start of dismissal procedures: they were 54,712 as of December 31st, now there are 16,155 more, 32,000 only in the automotive sector. Presenting the photograph of a mechanical industry that seems to have absorbed the shocks on raw materials and the increase in energy costs caused by the conflict in Ukraine better than expected but which denounces “growing cracks and difficulties in particular but important production chains”, is a Fim Report, the blue suits of the CISL led by Roberto Benaglia. An almost millimeter x-ray of the state of health of the mechanical industry which records about 170 regional disputes and estimates 7,461 jobs at risk due to financial crises; 2,194 places ‘overwhelmed’ by relocation processes; 3,450 linked to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war; over 34 thousand due to the current sector crises; 3,597 places that dance due to the related crisis and about 9,313 those linked to the effects on companies of the raw materials crisis. The current difficulties of the global economy as a result of the war in Ukraine, preceded only slightly by those linked to the pandemic, have therefore multiplied the cost of energy, affecting the most heavily used sectors: “all factors that together are compromising the recovery of strategic sectors, such as household appliance, steel and automotive sectors, putting many small and medium-sized companies linked to the related industries in crisis “, notes the Fim which, in relation to the automotive sector, remembers the extreme weakness in sales as weights” of cars, also disoriented by the choice of the EU in June to stop the production of internal combustion engines in 2035 throughout Europe, as well as the hiccup trend in the supply of semiconductors “. From here, the union continues, a series of full-blown crises as well as production stoppages in the main plants of the Stellantis Group (Melfi, Cassino, Pomigliano, Sevel) and consequently the related industries, with an increase in the demand for social safety nets. “The automotive and related components are in our panorama, the supply chain is increasing industrial and employment suffering. Even household appliances and aerospace components are, in the alternative, two further supply chains that show trouble. And companies are increasing, especially in the media. dimension, with financial crises. The picture that emerges, therefore, is not dramatic but urgently requires the definition of industrial policies to support sectors in difficulty, starting with the automotive sector, as requested several times, also jointly with the other trade unions and Federmeccanica “, comments the leader of CISL metalworkers, Roberto Benaglia. “We are also worried about the possible slowdown in the world economy and the effects on manufacturing of the announced increases in interest rates. The decisive factor will be to be able to count on the stabilization of supply chains and the containment of energy costs. But the real game is about supporting manufacturing. . In this sense, the PNRR is not very oriented towards innovation in the Italian industry and efforts and tools in this sense must be accelerated and increased. Industrial policy is an increasingly modern and central theme. environmental, is a critical and decisive factor on which Italy is backward “, he concludes