Former Ilva asks for redundancy payments for 4,000 workers, production collapses after the accident in Taranto
Acciaierie d'Italia in As has communicated to the unions the request for redundancy payments for 3,926 workers, of which 3,538 in the Taranto plant, after the halving of production following the seizure ordered by the prosecutor of blast furnace 1 where a serious fire occurred on May 7 due to the explosion of a pipeworker. A blow for Taranto that comes on the eve of the vote for the new mayor and the negotiations for the sale . Redundancy payments have also been requested for 178 workers at the Genoa site, 165 at Novi Ligure and 45 at Racconigi.
The accident led to the collapse of steel production in Taranto, already at an all-time low, but above all to the fact that Acciaierie believes that the Prosecutor's Office authorized late - that is, only last Saturday in the early afternoon - the urgent interventions that the company had requested from the judicial authority to secure the plant and safeguard it technically while still prohibiting its use. These interventions, according to AdI, had to be done within 48 hours of the fire. Instead, having received authorization on Saturday and organized the activities last Sunday, Acciaierie was able to begin them only on Monday, May 12.
Even the Minister of Enterprise, Adolfo Urso, highlighted the delays in authorizations, speaking of blast furnace 1 as "likely compromised". Regarding the redundancy fund, Acciaierie, currently, with the agreement signed last March 4 at the Ministry of Labor, has defined with the unions and the ministry itself a maximum ceiling of 3,062 redundant workers on rotation out of just under 10 thousand employees, of which 2,680 in Taranto out of just under 8 thousand workers.
At the moment in Taranto the cash register was remaining below 2 thousand units, having two blast furnaces in operation, the 1st and the 4th, and forecasting a production of 4 million tons for 2025 against the 2 million of last year.
La Repubblica
