Italy: Trade Unions Mobilize Against Shipyard Privatization

May 19 (EIRNS)--Italian trade unions are mobilizing against government plans to privatize Italy 's largest shipbuilding company, and outsource more than 30,000 jobs.

The National Coordination committee of the metalworkers union Fiom-CGIL denounced plans to sell 49% of the shares in Fincantieri on the stock market, as a deliberate plot to bankrupt the company. A white paper issued by the committee points out that the profit of Fincantieri is only 2% yearly--incompatible with stock market requirements. To make it "profitable" will require dismantling the productive firm, outsourcing jobs to cheaper labor in Romania , and selling the properties for real estate speculation.

Currently, Fincantieri hires 9,300 workers directly and more than 30,000 indirectly, through subcontracts. Union sources told EIR News Service that the current management has shown a reckless disregard for any improvement of the industrial capital.

The unions are confident that they can defeat the government plan. As in the past, they operate through a national coordination committee which includes the mayors of the major shipyard cities, Trieste , Genoa, Ancona, Palermo, Castellammare and Marghera. Parliamentarian Andrea Ricci, who supports LaRouche's New Bretton Woods policy, is collecting signatures for a motion to stop the sale of Fincantieri.