Meloni must call Stellantis execs, unions - Landini

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 2 - The leader of Italy's biggest and most leftwing union CGIl, Maurizio Landini, on Friday urged Premier Giorgia Meloni to call the management of unions at Stellantis after the Italo-Franco-US carmaker said it might have to shut its Italian plants unless it got subsidies to make electric cars.
    "We are faced with a situation that we have been denouncing for some time," said Landini.
    "The company's production capacity in Italy is over 1.5 million cars, but production is stuck at 500 thousand.
    "The issue is open and it is necessary for it to be settled, we ask Meloni herself to take the field by convening a meeting with Stellantis and the unions at Palazzo Chigi".
    Landini went on: "Incentives in themselves do not solve (the problem) and there is a need for a stronger logic of intervention. "In France, there is the state.
    "We are once again asking for the Italian state to (take up a stake).
    "This is nothing new.
    "We've been asking for this for a long time." Meanwhile the leader of Italy's second biggest union, CISL chief Luigi Sbarra, said: 'We expect from Stellantis a serious and responsible commitment to invest in all Italian plants starting with Pomigliano (near Naples) by increasing car production in Italy and guaranteeing employment levels.
    "We want to remind (CEO Carlos) Tavares that incentives are public resources and not gifts.
    "The government should be the guarantor of a pact between institutions, companies and unions on the relaunch of the car sector in our country".
    Tavares on Thursday said Pomigliano and MIrafiori would face serious cuts in employment levels unless the carmaker got major subsidies for making electric cars.
    He said Italy should do more to protect its jobs in the automotive sector instead of attacking Stellantis for producing less in our country, as said by Premier Giorgia Meloni, said Tavares.
    "This is a scapegoat in an attempt to avoid taking responsibility for the fact that if you don't give subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles, you put plants in Italy at risk," he said.
    Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, for his part, said Friday that "there is a debate today on where Stellantis should produce its cars.
    "But the problem is that unless we change our approach, in 10 years there will only be Chinese and Indian electric cars".
    Industry and Made in Italy Minister Adolfo Urso has said he is open to discussing a State stake in Stellantis. (ANSA).