Fiat boss says can't make money in Italy due to poor work ethic and unions-BBC

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10/25, BBC, "Anger as boss says FIAT 'better of without Italy,'"

• ""Not a cent" of Fiat's profits will come from Italy"

"Sergio Marchionne cited the country's poor record of labour efficiency and industrial competitiveness.

• He said improvements to Fiat's profits were made despite continuing loss-making at its Italian plants....
  

"Fiat cannot continue operating these factories at a loss forever," Mr Marchionne said, adding that the country ranked 118th out of 139 countries in work efficiency and 48th in terms of industrial competitiveness.

• But the speaker of parliament, Gianfranco Fini, said the only reason Fiat was only still a "colossus" was due to the Italian taxpayer, referring to government bonus schemes introduced to support the automobile industry during the global financial downturn.

Fiat has been waging a bitter battle with the Italian unions over the company's plans to improve productivity through stricter working conditions and shut down a factory in Sicily.

• The head of Italy's biggest union, CGIL, Guglielmo Epifani, said the CEO's comments reflected his underlying intent to abandon the country, saying:
  

"The truth is that Marchionne would like to leave Italy.""

7/22/10: "Fiat pushes work ethic at an Italian plant," NY Times by Liz Alderman

• “He wants to impose American-style standards,” Nello Niglio, a factory worker, said of Mr. Marchionne’s requirements to work longer hours and cut back on absences.
  

• “But too much work is going to kill our workers.”...

The factory, which produces Alfa Romeos, is in many ways an extreme example of Italy’s woes. The 5,200 employees have been operating the plant at 32 percent capacity for the last two years, since demand collapsed during the economic crisis.

• Keeping the plant open would seem to make little economic sense. But Fiat, which generates nearly half the region’s economic activity, faced political pressure to safeguard the livelihood of about 15,000 families
  

in a poor area gripped by organized crime. Unemployment and growth rates here are among the worst in the country, while productivity has been about 20 percent lower....

"Now fresh from rescuing Chrysler in the United States, Sergio Marchionne of Fiat is pushing these workers to be more devoted to their jobs, mirroring a larger effort by the government to improve Italy’s competitiveness and reduce its debt through austerity measures.

• But shifting a culture toward work and closing the divide with Italy’s northern neighbors won’t be easy. Embedded for generations here — and on other parts of Europe’s often-sweltering southern rim — is a lifestyle that values flexibility for workers....

Even some workers here in Pomigliano, Fiat’s lowest-producing plant, complain of ingrained bad habits, citing peers who call in sick to earn money while working another job or skip work with a fake doctor’s note — especially when the local soccer team is playing...."